HOUSING FOR BPL & MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES:YSR

HOUSING FOR BPL & MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES:YSR
Andhra Pradesh is witnessing another revolution in Housing sector under the poor-friendly Chief Minister Dr.Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy.
“The Objective is to ensure that not a single eligible poor, irrespective of political affiliation is left out in the housing program to give him a cost effective and permanent shelter” he said in a media interview.
Andhra Pradesh stands as a role model to the rest of the country in Housing program for the poor. Under the INDIRAMMA scheme the Government proposes to create a hut-free state by constructing 75 lakh houses all over the state in three phases.
If only 70,93,446 weaker section houses were built inAP since inception of the state in 1956, the Dr.Y S Rajasekhara Reddy government has laid out a road map for construction of 75 lakh homes over five years.
Under the First phase of the unique INDIRAMMA program the government has sanctioned Rs.19,74,749 houses of which 11,86,031 houses at a cost of Rs.5141.26 crore were already completed by January 2008 and the balance slated to be completed by end of August 2008.
In the phase –II 25.71 lakh houses have been sanctioned and it is targeted to complete them by 2008-09 and the balance will be begun by end of 2008.
As per the budget presentation, it is proposed to complete 30 lakh houses by the end of 2008-09 and a budget of Rs.5850 crore is provided in the budget of 2008-09. The government has also launched a program to provide house sites to 4,24,724 beneficiaries.
Yet another unique revolution is gathering momentum in Andhra Pradesh. Moved by the suffering of the homeless in urban and rural areas the state government under the dynamic leadership of Chief Minister Dr.Y.S.Rajasekahra Reddy, has launched a program to provide houses for every poor in both urban and rural locations in the state.Committed to fulfiment of the vision of the former Prime Minister and Congress President late Smt. Indira Gandhi, the AP government has grounded a massive program to provide houses and basic civic amenities to all poor living below poverty line ( BPL ) in the state.“I have seen how difficult life is for the urban and rural poor, who comprise over 70 percent of the population, in rainy and winter seasons when they don’t have proper shelter from vagaries of nature” said the Chief Minister Dr. Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy describing his mission behind the program. His government is working determinedly to fulfill the needs of Roti, Kapda and Makan - the frontline program of Smt. Indira Gandhi in seventies.
Coming September will be a red letter day in the history of housing for poor in the State. As on 30.11.2007 record 13.52 lakh houses completed under INDIRAMMA housing for occupation before the festival of lights - Deepavali.
To herald its successful housing program and to display its commitment to complete the remaining 66 lakh houses (over 34 lakh house already at different stages of grounding) the state government conducted INDIRAMMA GRUHAPRAVESHAM festival during the Diwali and has pledged to complete these before March 2008.“We want the people to share the benefits of our housing program on the eve of the festival and to reassure them that this government will fulfill all of its promises made during elections” says the State Housing Minister Botsa Satyanarayana.
The government has launched a massive mobilization program for the housing scheme titled as ININTA INDIRAMMA. The exercise is aimed at enlisting all the BPL families with the WHITE RATION CARDS to take benefit of the scheme by registering themselves for the second and third phase of the program.
As part of the program the officials and the people’s representatives have visited the urban slums and villages and identify the beneficiaries of BPL and urge them to take benefit of the scheme. The beneficiaries will be identified by the special INDIRAMMA COMMITTEES formed at the village and ward level to speed up the task of identifying the beneficiaries, get them registered themselves for the pucca houses for which the State Government spend over 60 to seventy percent of the cost.The objective is to deliver the sanction letter to the poor at their door steps and also to ensure that the benefits are derived by the real needy and poor and not benami. The committees will also receive applications from the poor and hand them over to the concerned revenue officials for inclusion or for sanction.“We want to ensure that not even a single BPL family is left out in the housing program” says the Chief Minister.The state machinery is being geared up to the village level to launch the INTINTAA INDIRAMMA program from August 20th as part of a transparent and foolproof strategy of the administration in the housing sector.Indiramma program aims to build 90 lakh houses including 18.77 lakh pucca houses, house plots to 5.14 lakh rural and urban poor.Cost per unit: The core group in the YSR government has deliberated at length on the financing and costing of the INDIRAMMA houses to provide maximum benefits to the poor .In the first phase the unit cost has been of the order of Rs.51,250 and might go upto Rs.65,000 as per the preference of inputs by the beneficiaries. The break up of cost is as follows.
What the Government gave : Rs.51,250

a) Unit cost Rs.25,000b) NREGS Rs. 3,200c) ISL Rs. 3,050d) SHG loan Rs.10,000
Hand loan of Rs.10,000 to Rs.30,000

In the second phase
SHG loan component to be raised to Rs.20,000
Total assistance from Govt at Rs. 51,250
Disbursal from Mandal Samakhyas.

In the Phase-II 22.91 lakh houses were sanctioned in the selected 8037 gram panchayats under the INDIRAMMA rural housing.
The administration has also worked out a strategy and mechanism for the bridge loan facilitated from the banks through the Self Help Groups (SHG).For the third phase of the housing program the state government has worked out a new strategy.
With a whole town approach.
Aimed to provide slum free towns and cities.
Expert planning for urban house planning for each town.
Use third parties like reputed NGO’s to identify beneficiaries.
Complete the process of identification of beneficiaries by end of September 2007.
Government to acquire land wherever land was in shortage.
Extensive use of pre-cast houses.
Separate Corporation for Indiramma urban housing.

URBAN HOUSING:
It is estimated that towards urban housing an extent of five lakhs house sites were needed for the next two phases of INDIRAMMA program scheduled to be acquired and distributed by November 1st, 2007. 27,89,329 urban permanent houses in the selected 1487 municipal wards in the state under the Phase-II. As per the present program the urban housing scheme under the Indiramma program is expected to be completed by March 2008.“Majority of the urban houses will be pre-cast houses for which the state government has begun selection of firms by a committee comprising of Three Chief Engineers of R&B, Panchayat Raj, Housing and the Director General of National Academy of Construction” said the Chief Minister Y S Rajasekahra Reddy on August 8th while reviewing the INDIRAMMA housing program .
Besides pre-cast housing the State Government has also taken up training of masons, electricians and plumbers in a large scale to facilitate the massive housing program. “The State Government has provided for training to over 30,000 masons to speed up the housing program” said the Chief Minister.
A sum of Rs.27,000 crore were spent during the last three years to build houses, roads, etc., in villages to bring them on par with the urban towns. Construction of twenty lakh houses was taken up in the year 2006-07 as against only 12 lakh houses in 2004 when the Congress Government led by the dynamic Chief Minister Dr.Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy took over the reins.Under the INDIRAMMA program 17.67 lakh houses were built in 8046 villages and 2.34 lakh houses 1371 municipal wards. For the 2007-08 year a sum of Rs.5443 crore has been earmarked in the state budget for housing projects.As part of its poll commitment to the weaker sections to provide houses the YSR government has constructed 19 lakh lakh houses with a subsidy of Rs.3304.75 crore in the last three years as against the 27,51,849 houses built for weaker sections over nine years of TDP rule.
If TDP built only three lakh houses per annum, the Congress government of YSR has built six lakh houses on an average per annum. While the TDP allocated hardly Rs. 25 crore for housing per annum, the Congress government allocated over Rs.100 crore per annum (Housing always involved share of the beneficiaries beyond the state subsidy).
Very recently the AP government has also decided to facilitate free transport of sand for the Indiramma housing works by exempting sand cess and also provided cement, steel and wood at subsidized cost to the BPL families engaged in house building activities.RAJIV SWAGRUHA:The YSR regime had not forgotten the middle classes, which are the voice of the common man. For their benefit the Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy conceived a housing program – Rajiv Swagruha - at a cost of Rs.20,000 crore to benefit 1.75 lakh middle class families. The construction works were taken up by the AP Housing Board and the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and Urban Development Authority on a no profit no loss basis.
In towns the Rajiv Swagruha houses were developed as integrated townships. Sixty lakh houses were proposed to be built under the scheme in the next few years for the benefit of the middle classes.
RAJIV GRUHA KAPLA:
Under the RAJIV GRUHA KAPLA scheme the state government proposes provide one lakh house plots to eligible urban poor every year in a phased manner in 42 municipal towns.The Government will also facilitate bank loans to beneficiaries along with its share of subsidy and proposes to build houses for them. Under the proposed 95,914 houses under the RGK scheme, construction of 35,116 was already completed. The government has also decided to regularize all illegal house constructions in the state from the urban poor sections to reduce the pressure on housing sector.Through INDIRAMMA the state government had promoted the concept of “SELF-HELP AND MUTUAL HELP”. It is encouraging the rural poor to built their own homes with wages paid under the NREGS scheme to them .To promote cost effective house building and reduce the cost of construction with eco friendly materials the AP State House Construction Ltd has created 86 Nirmithi Kendra and Sub-Nirmithi Kendras to create sand cement blocks, Fal-G blocks, Pre-cast Door and Window frames, cement jallies and RCC rafters etc