Slum dwellers from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities in the city will become eligible for flats costing a little over Rs 3 lakh virtually free of cost,with the Delhi government as well as Centre deciding to bear the expenses. A Cabinet meeting presided by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit decided to waive the Delhi governments share of Rs 60,000 for each dwelling unit,if an SC or ST family gets a flat built under the Rajiv Ratan Awas Yojna. The Delhi SC/ST Commission will pay the amount on the behalf of families from these two categories. The Centre and the land owning agency will also make their contributions, Dikshit said,adding that SC and ST families will get the flats almost free of cost. Dikshit said the Delhi government will start allotment process of nearly 5,000 low-cost flats to slum dwellers by next month,and out of the total allotees,SC/ST beneficiaries will not have to make any contribution to the government. The Chief Minister said the government will start allotment of around 7,000 flats by December. Officials said government will shift select slum clusters to the newly built flats,and if there were any SC/ST families in the selected slum cluster,they will get the flats free of cost. The government had earlier decided to begin the process of relocating 33 slums by allocating low-cost houses to eligible families because construction of 9,660 flats has been completed,and another 5,168 are nearing completion. Of the total applications,the government identified 42 per cent from the selected slum clusters as eligible. Around 15,000 families are currently living in the 33 slum clusters,identified for relocation in the first phase,of which around 10,000 families had applied for allotment of flats. Of the total applicants,6,738 were found eligible.
