42 Odisha cities among 300 under ‘Housing for All’ scheme

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
New Delhi, Aug 31:

After two Odisha cities—Bhubaneswar and Rourkela—were selected under the Smart Cities scheme, the Union government has included 42 cities from the state in the list of over 300 cities and towns across nine states for implementing its Housing for All scheme, an official statement said on Sunday.

“Three hundred and five cities and towns have been identified in nine states for beginning construction of houses for the urban poor,” said a statement from the housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry.

The ministry will provide assistance of over Rs.200,000 crore over the next six years to enable two crore urban poor get their own houses, it said.

The selected cities and towns are in Odisha (42), Chhattisgarh (36 cities/towns), Gujarat (30), Jammu and Kashmir (19), Jharkhand (15), Kerala (15), Madhya Pradesh (74), Rajasthan (40) and Telangana (34).

Under the Housing for All initiative, two crore houses are targeted to be built for the poor in urban areas by 2022.

“Within two months of the launch of the Housing for All (Urban) mission, 15 states have signed memoranda of agreement (MoA) with the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, committing themselves to implement six mandatory reforms essential for making a success of the housing mission in urban areas,” the statement said.

The states that have so far agreed to implement the mandatory reforms are Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttarakhand.

By signing the MoA, the states have agreed to make necessary changes including scrapping the requirement of separate non-agricultural permission in case the land falls in residential zone earmarked in the city or town master plan, and preparing or amending master plans earmarking land for affordable housing, the statement added.