Anandapur, Athagarh, Bolangir, Balasore, Banapur, Banki, Bargarh, Baripada, Bhadrak, Bhawanipatna, Bhubaneswar, Biramitrapur, Berhampur, Brajarajnagar, Vyasanagar, Choudwar, Cuttack, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Jeypore, Jharsuguda, Kantabanji, Khurda, Kuchinda, Konark, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nayagarh, Paradip, Puri, Rairangpur, Rajagangapur, Rourkela, Rayagada, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Talcher, Titlagarh and Umerkote were some of the cities selected for the Housing for All Scheme.
“Three hundred and five cities and towns have been identified in nine states for beginning construction of houses for the urban poor,” said a statement from the housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry.
The selected cities and towns are in Chhattisgarh (36 cities/towns), Gujarat (30), Jammu and Kashmir (19), Jharkhand (15), Kerala (15), Madhya Pradesh (74), Odisha (42), Rajasthan (40) and Telangana (34).
“Within two months of the launch of the Housing for All (Urban) mission, 15 states have signed memoranda of agreement (MoA) with the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, committing themselves to implement six mandatory reforms essential for making a success of the housing mission in urban areas,” the statement said.
The states that have so far agreed to implement the mandatory reforms are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttarakhand.
By signing the MoA, the states have agreed to make necessary changes including scrapping the requirement of separate non-agricultural permission in case the land falls in residential zone earmarked in the city or town master plan, and preparing or amending master plans earmarking land for affordable housing, the statement added.