Impacting lives of people to a significant way

Impacting lives of people to a significant way

.             The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation is entrusted primarily with formulation of urban housing policy and programmes, implementation of specific programmes of urban employment and urban poverty alleviation and policy as well as planning and monitoring of matters related to human settlements including slums in urban area. The significant initiatives of the Ministry, which would positively impact the lives of people, are as follows:             The Housing for All (HfA) (Urban) Mission launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 25th June, 2015 envisages to effectively address the housing requirements of urban poor including slum dwellers in the country. Inter-alia, the Mission has set the goal of construction of 2 crore houses by 2022 and it provides for an average grant of Rs. 1 lakh per house for rehabilitation of eligible slum dwellers with participation of private developers using land as a resource, credit linked interest subsidy at 6.5% for weaker sections of society and central assistance of Rs. 1.5 lakh per house in EWS segment for beneficiary led individual house construction or enhancement. According to a NCAER study ‘Impact of Investments in the Housing Sector on GDP and Employment in the Indian Economy’ (April 2014), the share of informal employment to total employment in residential construction is second highest among all sectors next only to agriculture. Also, for every Rs. 1 lakh investment in residential construction sector, 4.06 new jobs are created and for every additional rupee invested in residential construction, Rs. 2.84 is added to GDP and Rs. 0.12 gets collected as indirect tax respectively. The economic activity generated by the HfA (Urban) Mission would hence have multiplier income and employment effects. Guidelines of HfA (Urban) Mission also contain suitable provisions to cater to vulnerable sections of the society including persons with disability, minorities, single women, senior citizens, manual scavengers and transgenders. Accordingly, HfA (Urban) Mission would touch the lives of millions of people and contribute to a more egalitarian, economically productive and inclusive society. The need for greater involvement of private sector and public-private-partnership in promoting economic development and alleviating poverty is now widely appreciated. The Government is committed to providing a regulatory framework which would facilitate efficient investment, sustainable growth and protect consumer interest in the real estate sector. Accordingly, it has piloted the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) legislation to provide for a uniform regulatory environment, which would protect consumer interests, help speedy adjudication of disputes and ensure an orderly growth of the real estate sector. Various approvals, which are required prior to taking up project construction including housing projects, tend to delay project completion and also add to cost. A single-window clearance or facilitative window for the purpose is suggested as the solution to this problem commonly encountered by people. A model building bye-law has been prepared by the Ministry of Urban Development for the benefit of States and Urban Local Bodies.  To ease administrative and regulatory bottlenecks, guidelines for HfA (urban) Mission lay down mandatory conditions, which include (a) a system to ensure single-window, time-bound clearance for layout approval and building permissions at ULB level and (b) adoption of approach of deemed building permission and layout approval on the basis of pre-approved lay outs and building plans for EWS/LIG housing or exempt approval for houses below certain built up area or plot area.             National Urban Housing & Habitat Policy (NUHHP), 2007 is in the process of being revised to reflect the emerging changes. Formulation of Model State Affordable Housing Policy, Rental Housing Policy and draft Model Tenancy Act would have far reaching consequences.             National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) represents a paradigm shift from the concept of providing ‘employment’ to empowering people to earn their ‘livelihood’. The primary target of NULM is the urban poor, including the urban homeless and particular emphasis is laid on mobilisation of vulnerable sections of the urban population such as SCs, STs, minorities, female-headed households, persons with disabilities, destitute, migrant labourers, and especially vulnerable occupational groups such as street vendors, rag pickers, domestic workers, beggars, construction workers, etc. Activities under NULM are directed at providing shelters equipped with essential services to the urban homeless in a phased manner. The mission also addresses livelihood concerns of the urban street vendors by facilitating access to suitable spaces, institutional credit, social security and skills for accessing emerging market opportunities.             Street vending generates livelihood for millions of people. To protect the rights of urban street vendors and to regulate street vending activities, provisions of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, are aimed at creating a conducive atmosphere where street vendors are able to carry out their business in a fair and transparent manner, without fear of harassment and eviction.             India in association with UN-HABITAT had organized the first Asia Pacific Ministers Conference on Housing and Urban Development (APMCHUD) in 2006. The primary purpose of this inter-governmental body is to promote sustainable housing and urban development in the Asia pacific region. The 5th APMCHUD was held in 2014 at Seoul, Republic of Korea. As per the “Seoul Declaration”, India would host the 6th APMCHUD Conference in 2016 at New Delhi.             HfA (Urban) Mission envisages that for effective monitoring, progress of construction of houses would be tracked through geo-tagged photographs for which the road map is being worked out with National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad. The Integrated Urban Poverty Management System portal facilitates tracking of progress regarding approval of projects at different stages.  An online web based Management Information System for NULM would enable real time monitoring of progress of various components and provide details of beneficiaries, biometric attendance, training and placement and certificates would be awarded to successful candidates online.