Central govt hikes financial aid for rural housing scheme
New Delhi- The financial aid given to the rural poor to construct houses has been increased to Rs 70,000 from Rs 45,000 by the Centre.
The landless people in rural areas will now get Rs 20,000 instead of Rs 10,000 to buy homestead land.
Since the protesters were seeking land for the landless and the Centre agreed to bear 75% of the cost to buy land in place of present 50%.
The scheme is based on Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) which is one of the major flagship programs of the Rural Development Ministry to construct houses for Below Poverty Line (BPL) group of population in the villages.
The finance minister P Chidambaram was insisting to restrict the proposal from rural development ministry to Rs 65,000 per housing unit. He was against the proposed hike in aid for buying homestead land. But the cabinet ministers stressed on the need for increasing financial aid to the poor and then finance ministry’s opposition for the hike was overruled by the Cabinet. The hike for unit costs in IAY received majority of support from the Cabinet.
Rs 75,000 is also not sufficient for IAY houses because of scarcity of land in hilly areas, claimed a minister. Construction cost has to be decided based on the land cost, he added.
Members claimed that the Centre was being liberal in allocating funds to the states for various schemes but the state governments are changing names of few schemes to suit their political ends. The states launch scheme with a different name and project as if it is their own scheme. The ambulance-on-demand scheme was funded by the Central government under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) but it has been renamed by states, said a member.
The states will have to provide lists of beneficiaries to banks to enable them to avail loans up to Rs 20,000 at an interest rate of 4 percent. Even though there is provision for loans under IAY, loans are not being availed.
Click here for related forum discussion
Related Real Estate News:
Income Tax department raids leading real estate developers
KDA drive seals over 135 illegal buildings
Home sales drop by 16 percent in 2012: Knight Frank report
BPL population, buy land, Construct houses, Delhi NCR, homestead land, housing unit, IAY houses, Indira Awas Yojana, landless people in rural areas, National Rural Health Mission, New Delhi, Rural Development Ministry
