Pune Municipal Corporation will have to solve local housing problems
The responsibility of providing housing to nearly 40 percent of Pune slum-dwelling population will have to be shouldered by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) because the new government at the Centre has said that it will be unable to meets the needs due to its limited resources.
With 50 percent of India’s population likely to live in urban areas by 2050, the Union urban development department wants to ensure planned housing with facilities to the increasing number of urban residents. However, with the department having only Rs 35,000 crore for providing affordable housing and for slum development in the 12th Plan, the mentioned amount is not sufficient to meet all the requirements.
As such, the new approach being worked out by the Union government is to promote public-private partnerships to provide affordable housing, and also to launch corporate social responsibility initiatives, and persuade local governing bodies, financial institutions and banks to take up the responsibility.
The mentioned approach will apparently pose a challenge to the PMC which has failed to manage Pune’s growing population and proliferation of slums. Since the PMC has not been able to meet the demands for housing, unplanned settlements have mushroomed; and slum population has steadily increased to 40 percent.
Noting that PMC has taken no initiatives to plan housing for the poor in the city, Shiv Sena city chief Shyam Deshpande said: “The PMC has developed a habit of depending on the Centre and the state to solve housing problems.”
Source –The Times of India
