Maharashtra wants slum redevelopment to be considered under Centre’s flagship scheme

The state government has proposed counting the slum redevelopment scheme houses under the central government’s affordable housing scheme. The move would boost the numbers for the Centre’s flagship ‘housing for all’ mission.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Maharashtra government had initially decided to exclude slum redevelopment in Mumbai and a few other cities from the Centre’s ‘housing for all’ mission formulated under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). This was mainly because the state government offers free housing to slum dwellers eligible under its slum redevelopment scheme, while PMAY offers subsidised housing with the beneficiary having to shell out some amount.

However, the state housing department has sent a proposal to the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation to allow it to include houses built under its slum redevelopment scheme in the PMAY.

A state housing department official said, “The nature of the slum redevelopment scheme will not change. It will still run as a free housing scheme even if we bring it under the PMAY. When we conducted a survey of the demand for housing in the state, we included slum dwellers in need of permanent houses. So, it is only fair to count houses we built for them as part of PMAY.”

Before formally adopting PMAY in December 2015, the Devendra Fadnavis-led government promised to build 19 lakh affordable houses in Maharashtra by 2022. Until now, the government has approved 46 projects under PMAY that will yield 1,11,687 houses.

Under the slum redevelopment scheme, there are about 12,000 to 13,000 houses under construction in Mumbai that can be immediately added to the tally under PMAY, the official said.

Under the PMAY, the Union government provides funding of Rs1.5 lakh for every tenement and the state government tops it up with Rs1 lakh.

The state government has requested the Centre to deposit the Rs1.5 lakh subsidy it grants under PMAY with the state government for every house built under scheme.

“The amount will help the housing department in its effort to create more affordable houses in the state,” the official said.