1.39 lakh dwelling houses sanctioned under Odisha Urban Housing Mission

Bhubaneswar, Dec 23: In a significant move towards providing dwelling houses to urban poor, a total number of 1, 39,149 dwelling houses have been sanctioned for homeless households in 114 towns and cities of Odisha. This was known from the State Level Sanctioning and Monitoring (SLSM) committee meeting held on digital mode under the Chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra from Lokseba Bhawan today wherein Principal Secretary Housing & Urban Development Sri G. Mathivathanan outlined the issues for discussion.  Reviewing the progress made so far, Development Commissioner Mohapatra directed the urban local bodies (ULBs) to intensify Jaga mission activities in their respective areas. Mohapatra said, “House is the bare basic need of the urban poor and allotting a piece of homestead land to the landless will be an effective encounter to urban poverty. Right over a piece of land, while enabling access of the urban poor to OUHM programmes will also add to their identity and self-dignity”.    Further, Mohapatra directed the revenue and disaster management department and ULBs to identify more patches of land and protect those from encroachment for bringing the dispersed houses in to one place of resettlement so that they could be provided other basic services in more organized manner. The ULBs were also directed to identify the slum dwellers who can be allotted homestead land under forest rights act in urban areas.  Presenting the updates, Mission Director Suresh Chandra Dalai said, “So far 1,39 ,149 houses have been sanctioned in favor of urban poor families out of which 1, 04,838  work orders have been issued”. Till now 54,034 houses have been completed and rests are at different stages of construction.  The committee considered and approved new 8273 housing project proposals received from 52 ULBs with estimation of 24,828.04 lakh. Available data showed, out of 1,39149 sanctioned houses, 7300 were sanctioned under in-situ slum redevelopment programme, 6,962 were  sanctioned under affordable housing programme and the balance 1,24,887 units were sanctioned under beneficiary led constriction ( BLC) programme.  In BLC programme, the houses are built by beneficiaries themselves. On an average, a dwelling house of around 21 to 30 sq mt is estimated at Rs.3 lakhs. Out of this, the beneficiary gets a financial assistance of 2 lakhs provided both by the Central and State Government. Rest amount of Rs 1 lakh is the beneficiary share which he/she contributes mostly through labour.  Arrangements have also been for linking the beneficiaries to banks loans for the beneficiary share.