Slum improvement project under BSUP

The city Corporation will launch a slum improvement project under the Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP) project at Kalladimukham by February-end.
As many as 318 housing units will be constructed in two phases under the Rs.10.5-crore project. This includes 105 units for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes families and 213 units for general category families. The project will be implemented by COSTFORD.

A Rs.1,000-crore project of building one lakh concrete houses in cyclone-hit districts such as Cuddalore and Villupuram was the highlight of Governor K. Rosaiah's address to the Assembly on Monday.

Mr. Rosaiah, who delivered his first address as Governor since assumption of office in August, said the State would take up the construction immediately to replace the damaged huts in the districts

The Tamil Nadu Government would construct one lakh concrete houses at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore to replace the damaged huts in the cyclone Thane affected districts of Cuddalore and Villupuram, the Governor, Mr K. Rosaiah, said today.

The State Government has also presented a memorandum spelling out the quantum of damage and has sought an assistance of Rs 5,248 crore from the Centre, he recalled.

The Government would take up construction of one lakh concrete houses immediately to provide safe shelter to the affected families, he said in his address to the Assembly.

The state government has issued a notification making it mandatory for all projects on more than 2,000 sq m land to reserve 20 per cent of the plot or constructed space for smaller sized affordable housing.

The rule would be applicable to the 26 municipal corporations and all municipal councils in Maharashtra. The notification issued by the state urban development department is meant to promote the concept of inclusive housing at a time when most developers, especially in Mumbai, are in the business of creating luxury housing.

1.43 lakh units for economically weaker sections: R.Vaithilingam

The State will get an additional 1.85 lakh housing units in the next five years at a cost of Rs.17,230 crore. Of these, 1.43 lakh units would be for the economically weaker sections, R.Vaithilingam, Minister for Housing and Urban Development said on Monday.

Finding the implementation of its two-year-old order regarding building of “permanent” night shelters for homeless by states grossly inadequate, the Supreme Court on Monday issued fresh direction to all northern states to erect at least temporary shelters within three weeks to save the poor from any possible death due to cold wave conditions sweeping the entire region.

Biometrics, UID methods used for identifying beneficiaries

The Delhi Cabinet has approved certain amendments in guidelines for allotment of flats constructed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme for eligible slum dwellers in Delhi to facilitate grant of ownership rights to the allottees. Besides, bio-metrics and unique identity (UID) mechanism are being used to help in the process of allotment and about 1,300 allottees have been identified for the first round.

Days after two tribals from Pune district filed a petition in the Bombay High Court challenging a government notification which empowers Lavasa Corp to act as a special planning authority, the company termed the move as “motivated and malafide”. The realty firm, constructing a hill city (called Lavasa) near Pune, said the tribals, residents of Mulshi taluka, have no locus to file the petition since they are not owners of land in the area where the project is coming up.

There is an institutional gap in rural areas, and thus it is difficult to implement the green rating for integrated habitat assessment (Griha) scheme in those areas, said Nobel prize laureate Rajendra Pachauri, who is also director of The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri). He was talking to media persons on Wednesday after a meeting with Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (Credai) members on environmental issues and eco-housing.