Coordinated and concreted efforts necessary to achieve the goal of housing for all

Chief Minister Smt. Vasundhara Raje has said that well coordinated and concerted efforts are required on the part of all stakeholders including urban local bodies and private developers to fulfill the dream of Housing for All by 2022. There is a need to lookout for innovative and out-of-box ideas to provide housing for all, she said.

Smt. Raje was addressing a conference on Township and Housing Policy at the conference hall of the Chief Minister’s office on Monday.

The Chief Minister said that the estimated shortage of housing for the weaker sections of the society is approximately 17 lakh units and to meet this challenge it was required to initiate reform immediately and address the issues of this sector.

Smt. Raje said the Govt of India targeted the goal of Housing for All and started efforts in this directions. She said housing sector faces many constraints on demand and supply side. We need to make simplification of approval process, process of approval faster and easy availability of finance, she said.

The Chief Minister said that Rajasthan Affordable Housing Policy 2009 was not able to deliver and in order to meet the challenge of Housing for All, the government was looking for public-private partnership under the proposed Mukhyamantri Jan Awas Yojana on Affordable Housing. She said that the Mukhyamantri Jan Awas Yojana aimed at providing a major stimulus to the affordable housing sector, especially for the requirements of construction workers and other urban poor.

Smt. Raje said that the government offered different models of joint collaboration in the proposed Jan Awas Yojana. The government will make Single Window clearance mechanism available for the developers while simplifying the approval process. The government land can be made available to the developers and in return they would be required to provide housing to the economically weaker and low income (EWS/LIG) sections at affordable costs, she said.
The Chief Minister said that while working together with private sector the state government would ultimately come up with a robust policy for affordable housing to meet the challenge of ‘Housing for All’ by 2022.

UDH Minister Shri Rajpal Singh Shekhawat said that after food and clothes, housing was the third basic human need. Housing sector made good contribution to the GDP and it was the second largest employment generator, he said. House for all was the goal for all of us and to achieve this we were needed to give pace to the process. He said that the policy would be given final shape after pondering over the suggestions received during the conference.

Chief Secretary Shri CS Rajan said that good and innovative suggestions, which were received during the conference, would enrich the government’s efforts to finalize the policy. Additional Chief Secretary, UDH Shri Ashok Jain gave a detailed presentation on the proposed Mukhyamantri Jan Awas Yojana 2015

During the conference three groups were formed on Affordable Housing Policy Issues, Financing of Projects & Beneficiaries and Housing for Urban BPL Families. After discussion the all three groups prepared reports and gave presentations before the Chief Minister.

Principal Secretary LSG Shri Manjit Singh, Principal Secretary Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Shri Shrimat Pandey, Commissioner Industries Shri Abhay Kumar, JDC Shri Shikhar Agarwal, Housing Board Commissioner Shri Anand Kumar and private developers from Rajasthan and other parts of the country participated in the conference.

Jaipur, June 1 2015