Dehra Dun: In a major policy decision ahead of the Assembly polls, the Uttarakhand cabinet on Tuesday approved a new slum policy under which the government will provide a house or a plot to each family residing in slum areas.
"The government has approved a new state slum policy
which will benefit nearly 7.5 lakh people living in 582 slum
clusters," urban development principal secretary Ranbir Singh
told reporters after a meeting of the state cabinet here.
Under the policy, the government would provide a new
house or a plot to each family residing in the slum areas.
The government would provide an identity card to each
individual living in the slums and provide a 800 sq ft plot or
a 300 sq ft constructed house on subsidised rates for 10 years
lease to each of the family. After the lease period is over,
the owners will have the provision to free hold their property
for sale, Singh said.
A master plan will be prepared specifically for each of
the district as well as the slum cluster, he said.
Singh, however, did not specify whether these slum areas
would be regularised or not. "A working formula is yet to be
prepared in this regard," he said.
The government has also made it mandatory for private
developers and the government agencies to reserve 25 per cent
of the houses for urban poor in order to check encroachments.
The government would not allow any further slums to be set up
in any area, Singh said.
From now, new houses constructed on over 500 sq mt area
will have a servant quarter. Similarly, houses constructed on
more than 1,000 sq mt will have two servant quarters. "These
provisions are being made in order to check further spread of
slum clusters," Singh said.
Significantly, the new slum policy came at a time when
the Assembly elections are just two months away with the
ruling BJP trying to consolidate its vote bank among the urban
poor.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, December 13, 2011, 16:21