Hardeep Singh Puri Archives

Rs 60,000 cr affordable housing project in pipeline: Minister Hardeep Puri

by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, Investing, News, Politics, Property

New Delhi : Admitting that India’s urban infrastructure was under “extreme strain”, Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri has said the government was committed to bringing holistic transformation in the country’s infrastructure development, including providing 12 million houses in urban areas by 2022.

Sanctioning at a rate of 3 lakh to 5 lakh affordable houses per month under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Puri said the government is committed to providing “12 million houses in urban areas by 2022 as part of its home-for-all campaign”. He said this capacity building was imperative as the urban population was expected to rise from the present 30 per cent to an estimated 50 per cent by 2030.

“I was able to get cabinet approval for a new urban affordable housing fund and a provisioning of Rs 60,000 crore for the four-year period,” the Minister said while delivering a special lecture on Thursday evening on ‘2022: The India We Seek’, organised jointly by the Society for Policy Studies and India Habitat Centre.

The ministry has also come out with eight models to promote private sector participation in the affordable housing sector. Six of these are based on leveraging government land and two are based on private land ownership. The cost of land can be as high as 40 per cent to 80 per cent of the house being provided. Both the central and state governments are also providing outright subsidies, and the typical cost of a home is about Rs 6.5 lakh. “PMAY is getting high traction. There can no more generous scheme for social transformation like this,” he said.

Suggesting that the current government has a powerful, positive and growth-oriented agenda, he said: “In order to achieve the new India, the Indian state must be strengthened to deliver the goods and services required. You cannot deliver the goods and services if the state is enfeebled.” He also laid emphasis on cooperative federalism for the effective execution of various flagship schemes aimed at planned urbanisation.

The Minister said that though India was one of the most successful examples of post-colonial reconstruction, it has several issues to address. “Millions of our people still suffer in poverty, we must still overcome deep-rooted social prejudices and satisfy the demand for shelter, food, clothing and opportunity for the rapidly growing population,” he said.

The government plans to achieve 100 per cent open defecation-free India and 100 per cent solid waste management in the country by the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on Oct 2, 2019. Even Gandhi, in 1916, a year before his Champaran movement that heralded our freedom struggle, had called for a cleanliness campaign before striving for political freedom, said the minister. He stressed the need for a change in mindset among the people to achieve a “transformed India”.

“Building toilets and meeting the physical targets is the easier part but it will also require behavioural change,” he said and added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been successful in transforming the attitude towards toilets, which was a taboo till recently. “The PM has created a Jan Andolan (mass movement) where governments, corporates, civil society and public have all got on to the campaign,” he said.

Even the Smart Cities campaign is not just about infrastructure but about bringing a change in the mindset, he said. “The India we seek is where the public consciousness itself has been transformed, where there is housing for all, dignified existence for every citizen and protection from exploitative practices,” said Puri.

It will be a transformed India by 2022, Puri asserted.

“GST, demonetisation, the insolvency bill, infrastructure status to housing and RERA have helped clean, reform and revive the real estate sector and has made the valuation more realistic,” he said.

—IANS

Smart Cities Mission a starter to India’s urban transformation: Minister Hardeep Puri

by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, Interviews, News, Politics

Hardeep Singh Puri (file photo)

New Delhi : The Smart Cities Mission of the government is just a starter to India’s urban transformation and the plan won’t be limited to just 99 designated areas, says Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri.

“Transforming entire existing cities has never been done in the history of the world,” says Puri. “You can build new cities over time, but fixing old cities requires a strategic vision and a carefully planned outlay of resources.”

In an interview to the journal India Review & Analysis, Puri, who holds independent charge of the ministry, also noted that the mission to transform Indian cities is an innovative intervention to address “some of the most chronic problems” in the management, planning and finance of cities.

He said the overall purpose to transform urban India would benefit from the Smart Cities Mission as it would create “lighthouse cities” like the innovation labs for the urban sector.

The mission, he said, “will create the proofs-of-concept, the models and best practices that other cities around the country will learn from.

“It is important to note that the smart cities represent the full spectrum of the urban sector in our country,” he said, referring to the 99 cities that have been nominated to be developed as smart cities across the country.

“There are cities of all sizes with all kinds of economic activities and a diverse range of social and cultural contexts.”

He said the mission is fundamentally “an innovative intervention into the long-neglected urban sector” of India. It is “to target some of the most chronic problems in the management, planning and finance of cities and seeks to address those problems”.

Asked about a common concern that designating an area as a Smart City would increase the inequality gap, the former top diplomat, who retired as India’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, dismissed it as a “common misconception”.

“We must understand that transforming entire existing cities has never been done in the history of the world. You can build new cities over time, but fixing old cities requires a strategic vision and a carefully planned outlay of resources. Starting with one area does not mean we will limit ourselves to that area only. In fact, that is only the starting point.”

He said the government was also cognizant of the issues related to urban migration for which it constituted a group of experts and officials to deliberate on the subject of migration and its impact on housing, infrastructure and livelihoods.

“The recommendation was to integrate migrants into the urban economy, especially by addressing their housing needs, which have a direct impact on their access to livelihood and their ability to access other services like healthcare and education for their families. In terms of housing, for those who migrate to our cities and can’t immediately purchase houses, a rental housing policy is also being drafted.”

He said the government’s National Urban Livelihoods Mission also aims to integrate various kinds of workers into the urban economy through skill-building and other initiatives.

“Contrary to the dogma that has prevailed for many decades, the migrant is the person who brings new ideas and energy into urban societies. Most importantly, as our Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) once said, a poor migrant gets accommodated and assimilated into the urban economy — thus, cities are able to ‘digest’ poverty.”

The principle of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ “will be manifest in all aspects of our work in the urban sector”, Puri stated in the interview.

—IANS