52,000 Maharashtra affordable houses lie vacant

The number of vacant affordable homes is on the rise in five major states. According to the data of the Union ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, Maharashtra tops the list with 52,966 vacant affordable homes followed by 29,126 in Gujarat, 26,759 in Delhi, 26,004 in Madhya Pradesh and 23,688 in Andhra Pradesh.

Around eight lakh affordable homes were constructed under the Jawarharlal Nehru National Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojana (RGAY) out which around 2.5 lakh affordable homes still lie vacate in these five states.

However, the BJP government merged both the JNNURM and RGAY into Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), an initiative of providing ‘Housing For All By 2022’ under which the Centre aims to build two crore affordable homes for the country.

But experts claim that most of the housing schemes of the Central government do not see light because of varying reasons like that of lack of promotion and also at times the government of the Centre and state are from different parties, which directly or indirectly affects how the state takes forward each other’s schemes and policies .

“In Maharashtra there are agencies like that of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) and Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) who promote appropriately via advertisements and that is one of the reasons why they get a good response. However, we do not even know how the state government prior to this government was adopting schemes like JNNRUM and RGAY to provide housing to the citizens,” said Ajay Chaturvedi, real estate expert.

A state housing department official said, “Out of the eight lakh vacant affordable homes it is not necessary that all are to be sold in open market. There are a few homes for the slum dwellers who are supposed to be rehabilitated and the reason behind it being vacant could be because of them not being able to prove its ownership or also at times slum structures go in legal disputes”

In December 2015, the state Cabinet, as a part of its ‘Housing For All’ initiative, formulated a plan under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) to construct affordable houses in 51 cities, including Mumbai. Under this plan, the state government mooted to provide affordable houses by slum redevelopment on the existing plot, making excess housing stock available on Public-Private Participation (PPP) model.

Houses will also be developed for economically weaker and lower income groups. It also plans to take help from banks, as it will make available loans for 15 years with an interest of 6.6 per cent.