Centre geared up for Housing for All

Anantapur: The Central government scheme dubbed as 'Housing For All' gives a hope in the horizon for the middle-class population whose dream of owning a house appears to be on the road to realisation.

From May, 2016 onwards, online applications would be entertained and thousands in AP are expected to take advantage of the scheme The Central government scheme devised for those in the income group of annual earnings up to Rs 3 lakhs and another scheme for those in the annual income group of Rs 3 lakhs to Rs 6 lakhs is kindling a glimmer of hope for the above-mentioned income brackets.

In 2015-16 concluded financial year only 11,216 houses had been sanctioned for those under income group of Rs 3 lakh in a year. Similarly, for the upper middle-class group earning between Rs 3 lakhs and 6 lakh a year, houses are yet to be sanctioned as it is still in evolving stage. Unless the government earmarks funds on a grandiose scale, the entire middle-class cannot be covered.

However, for many doubts persist whether it would be covered in a phased manner particularly the homeless among them or confine the scheme to a selected few. Unless the government devises the scheme on a saturation mode it would not make the middle-class happy. It remains to be seen whether the scheme would cover all the middle class population in the country with no strings attached.

During the Congress rule under the chief ministership of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, The Rajiv Swagruha Corporation was floated to exclusively cater to the middle class population of the State but it ended up as a damp squib and poured cold water into the dream of aspiring citizens. There was no uniformity in prices and the building plans in the State leading to finally the government dumping the scheme after the death of YSR.

"Governments of the day since independence had never considered the middle and working class who pay their taxes to government honestly making him worthy of the government welfare bonanzas. The government's vote bank politics overshadowed this under-privileged class" says a middle class government pensioner Rajiv Reddy who is spending the evening of his life in a rented accommodation and struggling to make both ends meet.

The spokesperson of 'Caring People Foundation', an NGO, Indira says that the government housing corporation should not be confined to the poor but should design houses for the poor as well as lower and upper middle classes on the lines of ' Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority' which has devised schemes such as lower income group houses, middle income group houses and higher income group houses which in short are called LIG's, MIG's and HIG's.

The government should treat all sections of people equally and formulate housing schemes in tune with their earning capacities, she adds. Instead of government insisting on producing Ration cards, Aadhar Cards and Voter ID cards, since some eligible people may not be having all three cards, rather it should make Aadhar mandatory since its a government scheme. The government would build houses as per the income brackets on the house sites of the beneficiaries and in the absence of own house sites, it would build group housing on government sites and allot 2 bed room flats to each beneficiary.

Housing Corporation project director S V R Prasad told 'The Hans India' that in the first phase manual applications had been accepted from prospective beneficiaries, while in the second phase starting from May online applications would be accepted. However, the scheme is strictly for the homeless and even if one of the spouse owns a home, the scheme does not apply to the family, he cautioned.

By RAVI P.BENJAMIN