Andhra Pradesh Magazine English June 2016

Two Years of Accomplishments T Under NTR Housing Scheme, the subsidy has been increased six times to general beneﬁciaries and eight times to SC and ST beneﬁciaries. he State Government, committed to providing ‘Housing for All by 2022’, has taken up an ambitious housing scheme for the poor and the middle class sections. This requires a total of 10 lakh houses in urban areas and 30 lakh houses in rural areas to achieve this vision between 2016 and 2022. In pursuit of this vision, the State has launched NTR Housing Scheme by increasing the subsidy six times to Rs. 1,25,000 for general category beneficiaries and eight times to Rs 1,75,000 for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe beneficiaries with a total unit cost of Rs. 2,75,000. These houses will be equipped with all major requirements like tiled flooring, kitchen platform etc. Under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, the State received approvals from Government of India for 1,20,106 Economically Weaker Section (EWS) houses and in principle approval for another 73,041 EWS houses for beneficiary led construction. In total, the State will take up 110 projects in 59 Urban Local Bodies with a total project cost of Rs 10,623 Cr. To ensure that beneficiaries face minimal hassles in constructing their houses, the State is providing support for raw materials, facilitating supply of cement at concessional rates by negotiating directly with cement companies, geo-tagging, imparting training to construction personnel, constructing demo projects reflecting various technological options, transferring stage wise payments electronically etc. JUNE 2016 A total of six lakh double bed room houses would be constructed for houseless poor at a cost of Rs 16,000 crore across the State in the immediate future. Housing has been taken up under both the state and national programmes. The state programmes include NTR Rural Housing Programme, NTR Urban Housing Programme and NTR Upgradation Programme. The Centrally sponsored programmes are Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY), Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP), Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and Housing for All (HFA) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). The Chandrababu Naidu Government has taken up mammoth housing program in Rural areas as part of which a total of 2 lakhs houses have been sanctioned during the year 2015-16 under NTR Rural Housing Programme. The unit cost of these houses sanctioned under NTR Housing scheme is enhanced to Rs 2,90,000 uniformly for all castes (including NREGS component). The subsidy component has also been increased and loan portion reduced drastically, so as to obviate the problem of bank loan tie up to poor beneficiaries with negligible incomes. The plinth area of these houses is also proposed to be 275 sq ft. Further toilet will be provided to all these beneficiaries under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan dulymaking a housing unit of 300 sq ft for each beneficiary. The Government is now embarking on this large scale rural housing program with a total project cost of ANDHRAPRADESHMAGAZINE.ORG Rs 5,800 crores for housing and Rs 300 crores under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. This is not only a quantum jump in terms of amount sanctioned per house, whcih is Rs 2,90,000 per house but more importantly provides a subsidy of Rs 1,25,000 to general category beneficiary, Rs 1,75,000 to an SC/ST beneficiary i.e., a subsidy higher than the unit cost earlier in the Housing program in the state. NTR Upgradation The Government has also sanctioned an amount of Rs 150 crores to be spent for undertaking repairs for dilapidated houses constructed prior to 2004 for making them habitable. A maximum amount of Rs 10,000 per house can be sanctioned as per the estimates for repair of these houses. Central Scheme Detailed Project Reports were prepared under central schemes for 1,93,147 houses involving the GoI assistance of Rs.2897.205 Cr. The tentative unit cost is proposed as Rs 4.80 lakhs per house. In addition Rs 0.70 lakhs is proposed for infrastructure per house. The Centre’s approval has been obtained for these houses under various schemes,to be implemented in 59 towns and cities of the state. The Government is also planning to come up with a novel scheme under which houses will be made available at subsidised rates to beneficiaries, especially in urban areas. These houses will be made available to beneficiaries at about Rs 3.5 lakh each. v 25

Andhra Pradesh Magazine English June 2016 | Page 25