Slums: Govt loosens purse strings for AP, Karnataka

Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka may not have as many slums as Maharashtra, but the two states are the largest beneficiaries of the Centre-spons...

Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka may not have as many slums as Maharashtra, but the two states are the largest beneficiaries of the Centre-sponsored Ambedkar Awas scheme. The two states got double of what was allocated at the planning stage in two consecutive years, when the Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation Ministry released funds.

One of the government’s key schemes, the Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana or VAMBAY, was launched to provide environment-friendly housing to the urban slum population by Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee on August 15, 2002. Andhra Pradesh is the home state of two BJP bigwigs, the present Urban Development Minister Bandaru Dattatreya (who was earlier a MoS in the Ministry for four years) and party chief M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Giving AP, a good run is Karnataka — the home state of erstwhile Urban Development Minister Ananth Kumar, who had to recently relinquish charge to take over the BJP unit in his state.

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Of the two years of VAMBAY’s existence, Chandrababu Naidu managed to corner the lion’s share. If, a fund of Rs 5,973.893 lakh has already been released for 2003-04 against an allocation of Rs 2,364.08 lakh; in 2002-03, it received no less than Rs 5,535.437 lakh, again double the initial allocation of Rs 2499.55 lakh.

Andhra’s VAMBAY fund was for an estimated slum population of 60.166 lakh, as against Maharashtra’s Rs 845.6 lakh (released in 2002-03) for a much larger population of 107.367 lakh. This year Maharashtra has got Rs 4,185.825 lakh, marginally less than the allocation.

Just like Andhra, Karnataka wangled more from the scheme than what was allocated. In 2002-03, Karnataka got Rs 1,967.6 lakh more than double the allocated Rs 737.87 lakh for an estimated slum population of 17.761 lakh. Bangalore got an additional Rs 75 lakh for a demonstration project.

‘‘The VAMBAY scheme is demand-driven, those who put forward more projects and land got more money. It was decided that instead of surrendering the funds, why not channelise it to states who showed more initiative,’’ officials of the Urban Development Ministry said. Making light of the preference shown to AP and Karnataka, officials said: ‘‘The projects are cleared by a Central Sanctioning Committee, not the Ministers. Even Tamil Nadu has done well (that is, got a lot).’’

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The Sanctioning Committee comprises the Secretary, Poverty Alleviation (the other wing of the Ministry), a joint secretary and the HUDCO CMD. And HUDCO, which comes under the Ministry, also gave loan to the state governments which had to raise 50 per cent of the sum.

As for the Tamil Nadu claim, the state got Rs 492.200 lakh against the allocation of Rs 1,712.57 lakh for an estimated slum population of 43.59 lakh. However, the previous year its share was an impressive Rs 2,846.5 lakh — more than the Rs 1,810.70 lakh allocated.

Even Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat did not get the kind of special treatment that AP and Karnataka managed to win. ‘‘All the southern states are more committed in supporting pro-poor schemes,’’ the officials added.

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