The Government has asked private real estate developers to participate in creating affordable housing stock and help in making India slum-free.
“There is a need to encourage private sector to come forward and participate in providing affordable housing stock and help tackle the problem of slums. We have to make Mumbai and India slum free,” Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja said.
She was speaking to reporters on Tuesday, September 27, after inaugurating a conclave on urban poverty alleviation and Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) in Mumbai.
Under the RAY, the State Government and the private developers should work together to tackle the problem of slum proliferation and create housing stocks, she said.
Housing shortage for the poor is an important issue affecting inclusive growth, the Minister said, adding, there is a shortage of 6.53 million dwelling units in the country of which Maharashtra accounts for 3.72 million.
“Under the Rajiv Awas Yojana, the Centre will give aid up to 50 per cent of the slum redevelopment project. We want the State Governments to use these funds for leveraging their plans to create a slum free India,” she said.
However, she made it clear that the Central assistance is conditional to reforms by the states.
“These reforms include the enactment of law and the assignment of property rights, as also reforms to housing policy.”
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who was also present at the event, said his Government will try to get more funds from the Centre to construct more houses and make Mumbai slum-free.
