The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty
Alleviation Kumari Selja
has said that in pursuance of the Government’s vision of creating a Slum-free India, ‘Rajiv Awas Yojana’
(RAY) has been launched on 02.06.2011. The Phase I of Rajiv
Awas Yojana is for a period
of two years from the date of approval of the scheme. The Scheme will provide
financial assistance to States including Delhi, that are willing to assign
property rights to slum dwellers for provision of decent shelter and basic
civic and social services for slum redevelopment, and for creation of
affordable housing stock.
In a written reply in the
Rajya Sabha today Kumari Selja said, fifty percent (50 %) of the cost of provision of basic civic
and social infrastructure and amenities and of housing, including rental
housing, and transit housing for in-situ redevelopment – in slums of Delhi
would be borne by the Centre, including operation & maintenance of assets
created under this scheme.
She said, under
the preparatory phase of RAY, central assistance of Rs.
9.82 crore has been released to Delhi for undertaking preparatory activities
including survey of slums and slum households, GIS mapping of the city etc. for
preparation of Slum Free City Plan of Action.
The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board is the nodal agency for the
implementation of the Scheme. As per the report received from the nodal agency,
the process for undertaking the Slum Survey has been initiated.
Kumari Selja said, it is not possible to indicate the time frame within which
all the slum dwellers would be covered as the progress of the scheme would
depend on the commitment of the State Government of Delhi to mobilize the
technical and financial resources.
The
Minister said, RAY is expected to cover about 250
cities, across the entire country by the end of the 12th Plan
(2017). The selection of the cities will be done in consultation with the
Centre. The States would be required to include all the mission cities of
JNNURM, preferably cities with more than 3lakh population as per 2001 Census;
and other smaller cities, with due consideration to the pace of growth of the
city, of slums, predominance of minority population, and areas where property
rights are assigned. Under the Slum Free City Planning Scheme i.e. the
preparatory phase of RAY, an amount of Rs.99.98 crore
has been released to 34 states / UTs for undertaking
preparatory activities. The list of 163 cities for which these funds are to be
utilized for undertaking preparatory activities is enclosed at Annexure.
Click here to
see Annexure (Slum Free Delhi)
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AD/DB