Tepid response by builders to scheme for affordable housing

Ambitious plan fails to take off even though builders get many exemptions under the scheme; there are sops for the public as well

CHANDIGARH: The state’s department of housing and urban development has received just seven applications under the ‘affordable housing in partnership’ component of the Punjab Shehri Awas Yojana (PSAY) so far since its launch last August.

Of these, too, the sanctioning and monitoring committee has selected four — two for Mohali, one each for Batala and Ludhiana — which the nodal agency, Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA), is to recommend for assistance from the Union government.

The response remains tepid even though the builder gets many exemptions under the scheme.

The government waives fees for change of land use (CLU), external development charges (EDC), licence, permission and processing, and the building fee, for the entire project area if minimum 35% of the houses are constructed for economically weaker sections (EWS) and a single project has at least 250 EWS houses. Sale of the commercial portion of the project is allowed in proportion to completion of EWS houses.

Also, the project under this scheme is exempted from provisions of the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act (PAPRA), 1995. For the EWS part of the project, there is no limit of floor area ratio (FAR) too.

For the public, too, there are sops. A beneficiary can avail assistance of ₹1.5 lakh on he purchase of a house to be constructed by a private developer as per price fixed by the monitoring committee.

Ravi Bhagat, chief administrator, PUDA, said the response should be seen “in totality” as there are other components in the scheme too under which the government would provide subsidy, and construct and provide housing to specified categories.

The PSAY comprises two main components. First, free housing for houseless Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes; and the other is for subsidised housing for slum-dwellers, other urban poor, lower and middle-income-group families.

For the category of houseless SC/BC people, 23,000 applications were received. After validation and verification, 15,000 have been finalised, according to department officials. Land identification and costs are being examined for construction of these houses in various urban areas of the state. Construction will be done by executing agencies decided on site-to-site basis.

Under the ‘beneficiary-led construction’ part of the scheme, the department received more than 1.4 lakh applications.

So far, the department has disbursed around ₹15 crore for this purpose.

Beneficiaries under this category must have their own land and should have been living in a kutcha or semi-kutcha house for new construction of pucca house up to 323 sq ft, or should have a pucca house for enhancement from 226 sq ft carpet area to 323 sq ft carpet area.

The department of local government is undertaking a survey of around 150 slums identified by it too.

THE GOVT IS WAIVING CLU AND EXTERNAL DEVELOPMENT CHARGES, LICENCE FEE ETC, IF 35% HOUSES IN THE PROJECT ARE MEANT FOR EWS