Structure of Housing for All scheme a concern: Director, CURE

Dr Renu Khosla, Director at Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence has said that through PMAY scheme, government intends to build multi level housing at city's edges which remains inaccessible for the poor. She stated that framework of the scheme causes disruption among rural poor.

New Delhi: The Union government's key policy initiative PMAY or the "Housing for All-2022" scheme has visible concerns, saysDr Renu Khosla, Director at Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence.

"Housing for All is a good idea where people can have their own houses. One of the reasons for slum formation is because cities have not invested in sufficient clean housing," she said.

"As an idea ensuring that every family gets housing, the scheme becomes part of social justice. However it has failed to create an environment were poor people can afford to built their own houses," Dr Renu Khosla said.

"Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is structured in a way that there is a tendancy for state governments to build housing for the poor. They completely forget that poor make their own houses. Houses should be built taking into account several factors including accessibility to health and market," she added.

Speaking on implementation of the scheme, she said"Under the scheme government intends to build multi level housing at city edges."

"In other words government is sanitising the cities by taking poorer sections of the society to the margins of the city, disrupting their lives," she added.

As per the reports, India has a shortage of 15 million houses.Till February, Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has sanctioned 79,04,674 houses under the PMAY(U).