‘It will take India 20 yrs to be slum-free’
It will take not five but around 20 years to make India slum free. The government on Friday admitted before the Parliament that the high-powered Deepak Parekh Committee, constituted to suggest guidelines for implementation of the ambitious Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), has recommended that the “duration of RAY should extend beyond five years to 20 years”. The government further said that based on the recommendations, the guidelines for the scheme are being revised.
Replying to a question in Lok Sabha, minister for HUPA, Kumari Selja said that taking into consideration the comments and suggestions of the expert committee, the ministry has initiated consultations with relevant ministries and agencies. The preparatory work for the scheme, such as slum surveys and mapping have begun. When the scheme was unveiled, the number of slum dwellers was estimated over 64 million.
Some of the other suggestions made by the committee, set up in April 2009, are: Making the scheme a part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, ensuring implementation of reforms, participation of slum community in decision-making and keeping the central subsidy attractive for incentivising the states. Also, the committee has recommended that there should be less dependence on the public-private-partnership mode for solving slum problems. The development authorities and state governments have traditionally shown inclination towards the PPP mode for slum rehabilitation. However, these solutions have run into problem as the private operators often do not find it economically viable or interfere with the basic plan to make it commercially viable. For instance, in the capital, the DDA decided to take up rehabilitation of slums. The project has failed to take off in right earnest as the private developers want a cluster of slums to be awarded to them as working on single clusters would not be economically viable.
The minister, however, maintained that there was no shortage of funds for the scheme and it would largely depend on the states, who have to give property rights to the slum dwellers for getting central assistance, to avail of the scheme. For that, they will have to implement the urban land reforms, said the minister.
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