The Delhi government on Monday decided to expedite the construction of around 70,000 low-cost flats for slum dwellers while asking the concerned department to immediately start distribution of 14,000 flats completed.

The 14,000 flats will be distributed among the residents of the slums which have come up on land owned by the city government and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB).

In a bid to make the city slum-free, the Delhi government has decided to start allocation of around 10,000 low cost flats from next month. The project is, however, delayed for more than three years.

The government will allocate 500 flats to slum dwellers in June and the allocation would continue thereafter, Delhi urban development minister A.K. Walia said.
Chief minister Sheila Dikshit instructed the urban development ministry to expedite distribution of flats on Wednesday.

Urban planners attached to an advocacy group on Panchayati Raj here on Monday called upon the Rajasthan Government to pay greater attention to the Centre's flagship scheme, Rajiv Awas Yojana, for providing affordable housing to slum dwellers in the cities. The focus of the Yojana is on according property rights to people living in slums.

Vellalore chosen for reconstruction of the 144 dwelling units

For the reconstruction of the 144 dwelling units at Ammankulam, found structurally unstable, the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) has identified a new site —Vellalore. Sources in the district administration and the Board say that after a formal approval and go ahead from the latter's headquarters in the Chennai, tenders will be floated for construction.

The proposed redevelopment of slum tenements on the Marina beach will not be funded by the World Bank anymore.

This is following the expiry of the deadline of December 2011 for the completion of the project. The project could not be completed as the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board was unable to relocate families on account of stiff resistance by residents of Nochi Kuppam, Dooming Kuppam and Srinivasapuram.

After an almost negligible increase in budget spending for the urban poor for the past few years, the total spending on the poorer section of the society will see a drastic rise of over 40 per cent in the 2012-’13 fiscal. The civic budget presented on Tuesday provides for a total outlay of Rs 6,553.91 crore for the urban poor, a sharp rise from Rs 4,562.68 crore the previous year. The BMC had spent Rs 4,351 crore in urban poor schemes in 2010-’11 and Rs 4,155 crore in 2009-’10.

JAIPUR: In its efforts to make Rajasthan a slum-free state, the government has been able to secure funds from the Centre for construction of 6,666 concrete houses under integrated housing and slum development programme (IHSDP).

In a total project cost of Rs 211 crore, the Central government has agreed to fund Rs 103 cr for the construction of pucca houses for slum dwellers. Rest of the money will be paid by the state government and the beneficiaries. The project will be implemented at 94 slums in the state for which areas have been identified by the local self governance department.

The Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) has not received a single proposal after the amendment in the Development Control (DC) rules. However, before the new DC rules came into force, on an average 10 to 15 proposals were submitted to the SRA for approval. According to senior SRA officials, developers and their architects are taking time to understand jargons like fungible floor space index in the DC rules. “It will take couple of more months to get a clear idea about amended DC rules. Then only the architects will be able to design the housing plans and subsequently submit them.

CHENNAI: In a bid to make the state slum-free, the Tamil Nadu government has selected nine urban agglomerations under the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) for preparing proper rehabilitation plans.

Official sources told Express that the likely nine cities are Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Erode, Tiruppur, Tiruchy, Tirunelveli, Salem and Vellore.