New Delhi: Mumbai is one of the richest and most industrialised states in the country, but has nearly four times more slums than the national capital Delhi, showed the latest official data. In response to a question, Kaushal Kishore, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, told the Lok Sabha that as per Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), there are 675 slums in Delhi whereas as per Maharashtra government’s Slum Redevelopment Authority (SRA) for Mumbai, there are a total of 2,400 slums in the city.
As per the official data, the country’s financial capital has 3.5 times more slums than those in the national capital. The government told the Lok Sabha that land colonisation of state subjects and schemes related to providing housing, slum redevelopment and rehabilitation, prevention of growth of slums and providing basic amenities in their respective areas are implemented by respective State governments and Union Territories.
The Minister said that the Central government through the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), supplements the efforts of States and UTs by providing Central assistance under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana–Urban (PMAY-U) since June 2015 for the construction of houses for all eligible beneficiaries, including slum dwellers. PMAY-Urban adopts a demand-driven approach under which States and Union Territories have been empowered to approve the projects for the beneficiaries identified by them through a demand survey based on eligibility criteria.
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The Minister said the scheme is implemented through four verticals Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC), Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP), In-Situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR) and Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS). He also clarified that Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban (PMAY-U) is not a target-driven scheme, but adopts a demand-driven approach under which States and Union Territories have been allowed to approve projects for all eligible beneficiaries identified by them.
He said against the validated demand of 1.12 crore houses as on March 31 this year, 122.69 lakh houses were sanctioned by the Ministry based on the project proposals submitted by States and Union Territories. “Of which 1.06 crore houses have been grounded and 65.5 lakhs have been completed or delivered to the beneficiaries,” Kaushal Kishor informed the House. However, as per the latest data, only 15% of the total sanctioned houses were meant for slum dwellers. The Minister informed that out of 1.20 crore, 17.77 lakh houses under various verticals of the PMAY-U scheme have been sanctioned for slum dwellers, which accounts for just 14.8 per cent of houses for slum dwellers.
