The Madhya Pradesh State Assembly recently passed the historic Housing Guarantee Act, which is an important step to ensure everyone in the state has a house of his/her own. It is sync with the Central Government’s Housing for All mission. Here are five things you should know about this legislation.
- Under this Bill, the government would provide homes at concessional rates or residential plots free of cost to the economically weaker sections and lower income group people of MP. The main criteria for the beneficiary would be that he or she should be domicile of Madhya Pradesh.
2. Madhya Pradesh is the first state in the country who has passed such an act to guarantee homes to all.
3.Under this Bill, the government of Madhya Pradesh would guarantee provision of a house of 25 square meter or residential plot of land of 45 square meters in areas under the municipal corporation and in other locations, residential plot of 60 square meters
4. For implementing of this act and other housing schemes, district level housing committees would be created that would register the beneficiaries on the basis of a survey. Under the Bill, Rural and Urban development, local bodies, Development Authorities and Housing Board would distribute plots and houses.
5.At least five lakh houses would be made available to urban poor in the cities by next year for which a detailed work plan has also been prepared. Nearly Rs 25,000 crores would be invested in housing construction under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna. So far Rs 2 lakh 45 thousand houses have already been sanctioned. Until now 35,500 urban poor have already been provided homes. Under the state government’s Nagar Uday Abhiyan, three lakh urban beneficiaries have already been given authority letters for houses.
With this move, millions of people who have been at present devoid of housing or roof over their heads will be benefited. Madhya Pradesh’s move will also motivate the other states to bring up similar legislations to address housing problems in their regions.
