With severe land shortage coming in the way of housing for the urban poor, the Centre today asked states to come on board and help it formulate new schemes.
"There is an urgent need to augment land for the urban poor as there is acute shortage of housing for them," Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Kumari Selja said in the Rajya Sabha.
Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour, she explained that under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, 25 per cent of land is reserved for urban poor.
She said the government is in the process of formulating new housing schemes for the urban poor to meet the acute housing shortage. "States would have to come on board to discuss this issue," the minister added.
Selja, however, said that there cannot be a specific time frame to solve the land shortage problem.
The minister favoured encouraging allotment of land for economic weaker sections.
Replying to another supplementary, Selja accepted that there is no uniformity in stamp duty in the country.
"Many states have agreed to reduce stamp duty for urban housing, but there are several states which think that greater the duty, the more taxes they will garner," she said, favouring a consensus among states.
