Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Over 3 cr. houses for shelterless by 2010: Ananth Kumar

By Our Staff Reporter

Udhagamandalam June 9. By 2010 the problems related to slums in various parts of the country will be tackled to a significant extent, according to the Union Minister for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, Ananth Kumar.

Talking to presspersons here today, he said the Government aimed at providing 3.3 crore houses to the houseless families by 2010 through the HUDCO and other agencies. Of this, 1.63 crore houses would be in rural areas.

Under the `Shelter for All' grant-cum-loan scheme, Rs. 26,000 crores had been earmarked. Under the new project, `Valmiki Ambedkar Aawas Yojana', 30,000 houses were being constructed at a cost of Rs. 45 crores.

The HUDCO was ready to come out with more retail lending to encourage government officials and those in the corporate sector to avail housing loans ranging from Rs. 50,000 to Rs.50 lakhs. While the interest charged would be low, the repayment period would range between 5 and 15 years.

For the convenience of the public, major cities would soon have a `HUDCO niwas', he said.

On the need to revive the ailing public sector undertaking, Hindustan Photo Films, near here, the Minister assured that he would take up the matter with the Union Finance Minister and the Union Minister for Heavy Industries. The Government was conscious of the gravity of the situation vis-a-vis the tea crisis in the Nilgiris.

Earlier, Mr. Kumar inaugurated a round table discussion on `slum development, implementation of VAMBAY and capacity building of urban local bodies in the southern States.'

The Union Secretary, HUDCO, S.S. Chattopadhya, said funds were no constraint in implementing housing schemes. Under VAMBAY, the allocation had gone up to Rs. 256 crores this year from Rs. 69 crores last year. The slum population in the country was 6.18 crores and the best way to prevent proliferation of slums was by encouraging rural development.

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