Urban areas facing shortage of 2 crore houses: Venkaiah Naidu

CHANDIGARH, June 16: The Centre today said that there is a shortage of around two crore houses in urban areas out of which 95 per cent is of Economic Weaker Sections (EWS) and Lower Income Groups (LIG). "We have a shortage of around 2 crore houses in urban areas of the Country. 95 per cent of this shortage is in EWS and LIG sectors," Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation M Venkaiah Naidu said here today said. He said, urbanisation is an undisputed driver of the economic growth but unfortunately it had so far been characterised by lack of proper and strategic planning. The Minister said that the Centre has brought several programmes for rejuvenation and development of the urban areas. The Government is going to launch 'Smart Cities' and 'AMRUTH' programmes with in this month itself, he said. Under Smart Cities programme, 100 cities across the country will be developed as model cities while under 'AMRUTH' 500 cities/towns having more than 1 lakh population will be equipped with better civic infrastructure, he said. Naidu said that the Centre is in final stages of launching "Housing for All" programme with the objective to assist the State Governments for facilitating a concrete house to all citizens of the country by year 2022. Redevelopment of slums will be an important component of this programme, he said, adding that maximum interest subvention on Housing loan EMIs is provided by the government. Earlier at a function, Punjab and Haryana governor Kaptan Singh Solanki and Naidu handed over the keys and physical possession documents of 1568 small flats to the eligible beneficiaries at Mauli Jagran?II, on the city outskirts. These flats are four storeyed, having total covered area of 307 sqft (28.52 sqm) including area of common services for each unit. In his remarks, the Chandigarh administrator Solanki said that the Government is totally committed to the welfare of the poor, adding "our target is to make Chandigarh slum free". He said that Chandigarh has been awarded three times by the Union Government over its good work for providing Housing for the poor. To implement this ambitious slum rehabilitation programme, the UT Administration finalized the project under the Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) component of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)