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Open Forum
New Delhi, 22 September 2021
Urban
Regeneration
AFFORDABLE
HOUSING CRITICAL
By
Dhurjati Mukherjee
There can be no
denying that the urban sector in India needs a thorough transformation.
However, the reason for urban centres, excluding metros, not getting a facelift
is the lack of resources from which they suffer. The scenario is expected to
change a little with the share of urban bodies in devolved funds rising from
0.78 per cent of the divisible revenue pool in the report of the 15th
Finance Commission to 4.3 per cent. In fact, the FC’s urban devolution is Rs
121,000 crore over five years, obviously a substantial one.
The Finance
Commission recommended earmarking Rs 8000 crore incentive grant for eight States
for incubation of one new city each as a pilot project. As such, each new city
will get Rs 1000 crore. The Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry will soon come
up with the framework for this, which will be taken up on a challenge mode. The
new city will be developed as a Smart City. The Commission has very
aptly, talked about the need for both rejuvenation of old cities and setting up
of new cities. It said the challenge of setting up infrastructure in Greenfield
cities can be less daunting than the problem witnessed in old cities.
From 2004 to 2014,
the total expenditure on urban development was about Rs 1.57 lakh crore. Over
the past six years, the figure has shown a marked increase to reach Rs 10.57
lakh crore. A McKinsey report estimated that by 2030, 40 per cent of India’s
population (590 million Indians) is expected to live in cities. To cater to the
growing urban population, India has to build 700-900 million sq. million of
urban space every year till 2030. This also means 70 per cent of future India
is yet to be built.
Though experts have
pointed out that the sum allotted still may not be sufficient to build a new
smart city with all modern facilities, it is gratifying to note that a
beginning has been made. The overcrowding of cities, the problems related to
water, sanitation and hygiene are crucial issues that need to be tackled at
this juncture.
Another
recommendation by the Commission is a mix of unconditional grants and those
linked to national priorities like drinking water, water harvesting and
sanitation. For large cities with more than one million population, the
Commission grants additional grants of Rs 38,196 crore through a ‘Million Plus
Cities Challenge Fund’ linked to benchmarks for air quality and other such
parameters.
It suggested fixing
price of water on a graded basis, wherein higher consumption entails higher
charges and periodic revision of the charges has also been accepted at a time
when the government is going to launch a Rs 2.64 lakh crore scheme to provide
universal household tap water connection to all houses across 4378 municipal
areas by 2026.
If half of India is
to become urban over the next decades, it means adding 20-25 crore people to its
cities. They cannot be allowed to crowd the existing cities, new ones have to
be built. These cities must be ‘smart’, in the real sense of the term, but
connectivity to these must also be low-cost so that people can commute
easily.
Cities, as is
generally agreed, are viewed as engines of growth. Thirty per cent of the
population is considered urban, as per the latest census, but its definition of
cities is probably flawed. India has villages of 10,000 people while other
countries have towns with around 4000-5000 people. Using a broader definition
of urban characteristics, the World Bank considered 55 per cent of the
country’s population as urban. It is the small cities that are gradually
getting overcrowded and need special attention for upgrading basic facilities.
Experts feel that
city development could improve if more powers are bestowed on mayors. They as
also heads of development authorities of large cities should be given powers to
raise financial resources without being tools under the State government’s
municipal affairs department. This needs to be seriously considered, but the State
governments are in no mood to decentralise powers as mandated by the Constitution’s
73rd and 74th amendments.
Urban living, having
roots in the Scandinavian participatory design movements since 1970s is a
bottom-up approach to planning and implementation instead of the highly
centralised top-down development planning presently. In such an approach,
residents, private actors, knowledge institutions and local governments
interact with each other to design, test and fine-tune social and technical
interventions in real time. This collaborative arrangement is highly
significant and marks a shift from incumbent efforts based on
government-industry partnerships.
Apart from this
decentralised approach, the focal point of development of both old and emerging
big cities is the need for low-cost housing for economically weaker sections
and low income groups. The State governments’ role leaves much to be desired as
they are not pro-active. It’s the private sector which is in the construction
business, but its aim is to make high profits and, as such, does not build
cost-sufficient cost-effective flats for these two sections, whose requirement
at low prices is the most.
the
government’s stated goal of ensuring housing for all by 2022 appears
unlikely to be met given the slow pace of construction and delay in expanding
the beneficiaries list. While launching the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMJAY)
– Gramin on April, 2016, Prime Minister Modi had gone by the Socio-Economic
Caste Census of 2012 and set a target of building 2.95 crore houses by
2022. However, by 2019, the State governments had identified another 3.67 crore
households that lacked houses, raising the scheme’s possible target to 6.62
crore houses.
According to a Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Rural Development report, the government built only 1.04
crore houses by first week of June last year. The Rural Development Ministry
told the Committee it has taken up the matter of the additional beneficiaries
with the Finance Ministry. The key reason for the delay is lack of funds over
the years. A number of houses are yet to be constructed from the original
target.
The need for
affordable housing is clearly the most important challenge for the country,
especially for big towns, which are facing huge in-migration from neighbouring
areas, thereby adding to congestion. While what the private sector calls ‘affordable’
is ideally suited for the low income groups it is not for the EWS. The State
government has a crucial role to play in future and, if it thinks that such
housing should be constructed on public-private partnership (PPP),
collaborations may be conceived. Already such collaborations are manifest but
the demand is much more than actual supply.
In the recent Budget, some experts and builders were of
the opinion that in view of the 15th Finance Commission’s
recommendations, more resources should have been allotted to the sector to give
a boost to low-cost housing. Though the extension of additional deduction of
interest for loan to purchase affordable houses till March 2022 and affordable
housing projects being able to avail tax holiday till that period, there are
also expectations among developers that the government will unlock surplus land
for real estate projects. However, whether this will be used for low-cost
housing remains a big question and the extent of affordable housing being made available.
---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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