Urban News

The Pioneer  27.08.2010

Staff Reporter | Bhopal

Following disinterest of banks, the scheme for providing five per cent subsidy on loans for 34,000 houses for the urban poor and low-income groups is not making headway. Ratlam is the only district in the State where banks have provided loans to 129 out of 460 applicants of low-income group.

Under the scheme, a total of 34,027 urban poor have been selected for extending loans to build their houses. These poor people include those who have been given residential pattas of land between 1984 and 2009. The total number of such urban poor is 3,40,275. Only 10 per cent of these people or 34,027 such people are to be provided loans with five per cent subsidy.

Half of these beneficiaries are those who come from economically weaker sections and whose monthly income is not more than `5,000 and half of them are those who belong to low-income group whose monthly income is more than `5,000 but less than Rs 10,000.

This scheme has been implemented in all the 50 districts of the State through civic bodies. But the banks are not showing due interest in extending loans to these poor people for constructing their own houses.

Under the scheme, a provision has been made to provide loans up to `1.60 lakh to economically weaker section (EWS) people for constructing houses on 25 square metre plinth area and low-income group (LIG) beneficiaries to built their houses on 40 square metre plinth area.

The Pioneer  25.08.2010

Housing scheme for poor has few takers

Rajendra S Markuna | Haldwani

The much-talked about Deen Dayal Housing Scheme seems to have few takers as the completion of necessary formalities to apply for a house under this scheme has turned out to be a tedious job for the needy.

The scheme is basically meant for people in the low income strata or below poverty line (BPL) category. But to obtain a low income certificate from the local authorities seems to have become tougher than acquiring a house for them.

“There are around 400 families in Nainital city who manage their source of livelihood by doing some household jobs. Obviously they belong to the lower income group. But the reality is that only about a dozen such people have BPL cards, which is a must to prove that an applicant belongs to lower income group and only then he/she will become eligible for a house under this scheme,” local MLA Kharak Singh Vora told The Pioneer.

So one can imagine how a needy who don’t have a roof over his head can apply for a house under one of the most ambitious programmes of the Government without completing the necessary formalities, wondered the Vora.

Vora is a ruling party MLA. But his concerns about such administrative obstacles only reflect the insensitivity on part of the local administration.

It’s the duty of the local SDM or BDO to issue BPL cards. But the fact is that these officials are already so burdened with other works that they don’t have time to look into these issues, Vora added.

He suggested that the Government should give this responsibility to other officials so that necessary formalities could be done on time.

Otherwise this ambitious scheme won’t serve any purpose here, Vora said adding that completion of these formalities on time was vital in places like Nainital and other hill districts as there was hardly six months to execute these schemes before the end of the financial year.

“This is a hundred per cent State Government run scheme and the local MLA need not contribute anything financially to this. But being local representatives our role is vital to help the needy get a house,” Vora maintained.

So he has urged the Government to simplify this scheme so that the needy could avail the benfits. Under this scheme an urban poor can get a grant of `45,000 while those in rural areas the amount is fixed at Rs 48,500.