Reserve land for urban poor: Selja to CMs

The move comes in the backdrop of the launching of the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) for the urban poor,along the lines of the Indira Awas Yojana for their rural counterparts,with an objective of creating a slum-free India. The Budget witnesssed an enhanced allocation for housing for the Urban Poor with the above scheme in mind.

“To improve the lot of the urban poor,I propose to enhance the allocation for housing and provision of basic amenities for the urban poor to Rs.3,973 crore in the current year’s budget. This includes the provision for Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY),a new scheme announced in the address of the President of India. This scheme,the parameters of which are being worked out,is intended to make the country slum-free in the five year period,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had announced in his budget speech last week.

With an eye on the expeditious launch of the scheme,Selja has asked all the Chief Ministers to create a robust database of slums in their cities within the next three months.

Selja’s letter to the Chief Ministers is part of the HUPA Ministry’s project of the setting up of a legal framework that accords property rights to slum-dwellers and urban poor. “You may appreciate that the Master Plans in the past have led to exclusion of the poor from the city’s development process and driven them to precarious and illegal settlements. There is need to develop an urban land policy and a legal framework for according security of tenure/property rights to the slum dwellers/urban poor.

You may kindly consider amending town planning,urban area development,municipal and other related laws to provide for reservation of land for affordable housing,basic amenities and informal sector activities of the poor,” Selja says in her letter.

Provision of cheap credit is another key factor in her vision for securing affordable housing for the urban poor.