AAP poll promise of houses to slum dwellers may take around 3 years
OFFICIALS SAID IT WOULD TAKE ANOTHER 2.5 YEARS TO COMPLETE THE GOVERNMENT’S FLAGSHIP PILOT
NEWDELHI: The AAP government’s ambitious project of providing better housing in multi-storey buildings to slum dwellers will take three years to materialise.
Little has been done after the AAP government notified the ‘Delhi Slum and JJ Relocation and Rehabilitation Policy, 2015’ in December last year. While the deadline for conducting the demand survey of all slum clusters in Delhi was June, the government has only managed to appoint a consultant for the job. The last such survey was completed in 2014 by the government, according to which Delhi has 675 slum and JJ clusters.
Officials from the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), which is responsible for the project, said it would take nine months to complete the survey. “Work was awarded on July 13 and the survey will begin from next month. It (the survey) will give a comprehensive list of eligi- ble families for the housing scheme in Delhi including those who live in clusters on Central government land such as those owned by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). It will cover more than 750 clusters,” said DUSIB CEO, Shurbir Singh.
A strong vote base for the Aam Aadmi Party, its leader, Arvind Kejriwal, rose to power in 2015 to become Delhi’s chief minister with the support of the residents of slums and JJ clusters. One of AAP’S key poll promise in the 2015 Assembly elections was ‘Jaha Jhuggi, Wahan Makaan’ (a legal concrete house for every family living in slums).
Singh said the Delhi government is going to build houses only for 176 slum clusters which are under the ambit of the Delhi government and municipal corporation land. “The rest of the clusters come under Central government land. The DDA has agreed to build EWS houses on such land parcels,” Singh said.
After the survey, officials said it would take another 2.5 years to complete the government’s flagship pilot project of in-situ rehabilitation at four locations – Lajpat Nagar, Bhalswa, Karol Bagh and Dev Nagar.
“Around six months will be required to seek approvals from different agencies. After that, construction will take approximately two years. These will be ground plus 14-storey flats,” an official working on the project said on condition of anonymity.
The pilot project includes rehabilitating slum dwellers living in a five km radius from these project sites. While the Board approved the construction of 6178 EWS (Economic Weaker Section) flats at the cost of Rs 866 crore at the four locations back in February last year, the file at present is waiting for the Cabinet’s nod.
The DUSIB simultaneously will also rehabilitate slum dwellers of northwest Delhi’s Sultanpuri. “There are 1,060 ready-tomove dwelling units there. We had already identified 603 households out of which 224 had submitted the required documents. Among them, the government cleared 187 to move into the new houses. However, a final call on the complete list of those who will be eligible for the houses in Sultanpuri will be taken based on the new survey report,” the official said.
The houses that will come up under the policy, however, will not be free. Beneficiaries will have to pay about ₹1.12 lakh for a 25-sq metre flat.
After this, ₹30,000 will be charged as maintenance cost for five years.
The rules for construction and allotment of houses under the policy have been made in consonance with the Centre’s affordable housing scheme — Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.