42 Cities/Towns identified for Housing for All Scheme in Odisha

Bhubaneswar, Aug 31: The government has identified 305 cities and towns across nine states, including 42 in Odisha state for implementing its Housing for All scheme, an official statement said on Sunday. Under this project houses will be constructed for for urban poor.  The ministry will provide assistance of over Rs. 200,000 crore over the next six years to enable two crore urban poor get their own houses. By 2022, the government will construct 2 crore houses in urban areas.

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.