Anil Anand
New Delhi, Aug 30: In a partial redemption of its loss for losing on the ‘Smart City’ project due to regional squabbles, 19 cities and towns of Jammu and Kashmir have been selected for providing housing facilities under the Centre’s Housing for all (urban) Mission-2015.
Jammu and Kashmir is among 15 States who have signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union Urban Development Ministry within 60 days of formal launch of this scheme.
Out of 19 cities and towns selected to provide housing facilities in urban areas Jammu and Kashmir region have nine each. The remaining one Kargil falls in Ladakh region. Having been able to strike a balance between Jammu and Kashmir seems to be the key reason behind the State Government signing the MoU speedily.
The cities and towns falling under Jammu region include Jammu, Basohli, Bhaderwah, Doda, Poonch, Rajouri, Samba, Udhampur and Kathua.
The cities and towns covered in Kashmir region under the scheme include Anantnag, Budgam, Baramulla, Bijbehara, Ganderbal, Pulwama, Shopian, Sopore and Srinagar.
These are among 305 cities and towns identified in nine of the 15 States that have signed the MoU.
The State Government would now be under obligation, after signing the MoU, to implement six mandatory reforms necessary to ensure success of the housing mission meant for urban areas.
These reforms include doing away with need of a separate Non Agricultural Permission (NAP) in case the land falls in the residential zone earmarked in the Master Plan of a city/town. Preparing or amending Master Plans identifying land for affordable housing ; putting in place a single-window-time bound clearance system for layout approvals and building permissions; doing away with approvals below certain built up area/plot size for economically weaker sections and low income groups; legislating or amending existing rent laws in accordance with the Model Tenancy Act which has already been circulated to the States by the Urban Development Ministry; and to provide additional Floor Area Ration (FAR)/ floor space index/ transferable development rights and relax density norms for slum re-development and low cost housing.
Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, other States which have agreed to implement these reforms are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttarakhand.
Under the Housing for All initiative ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana’, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 25 this year, two crore houses are to be built in urban areas. This target has to be achieved by 2022 to coincide with the 75 years of Independence.
Under this urban housing mission, the Centre will provide an assistance ranging between Rs.1 lakh to Rs.2.30 lakh per house under different components of the Scheme including insitu re-development of slums using land as resource, Credit linked Subsidy Scheme, Affordable Housing in Partnership and Beneficiary led individual construction/ improvement.
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