The Punjab Cabinet today gave nod to 'The Punjab Shehri Awas Yojana-2017' to provide free housing to eligible "houseless" schedule caste (SC) and backward class (BC) families' living in urban areas.
Urban households with an annual income of less than Rs 3 lakh will be eligible to claim free housing facility in the first phase of the scheme, an official spokesperson said here.
Those with income of Rs 5 lakh will be eligible in the second phase, he said, adding the scheme was part of the Congress's poll promise.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, however, gave strict instructions to the departments concerned to ensure utmost care is taken to take the scheme to the "real" beneficiaries.
He observed that often the eligible persons fail to get the benefit of social welfare schemes due to errors of inclusion or exclusion.
Extreme care should be taken to avoid such errors, the chief minister said.
The scheme also envisages subsidised housing through in-situ slum re-development to eligible slum dwellers, besides affordable housing through concession in EDC, CLU to private developers, the spokesperson said.
It also provides for elimination of stamp duty, registration charges or any other state government cess on the social infrastructure fund for eligible beneficiaries and urban poor having an annual income of less than Rs 3 lakh, he said.
The scheme would also provide facility of cheap home loans to lower income group (LIG) families (with annual income less than Rs 6 lakh) and middle income group (MIG) families (with annual income of less than Rs 18 lakh), the spokesperson said.
Land from rural development, local government or any other departments suitable for construction of houses for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) would be transferred free of cost to the Housing and Urban Development Department, he said.
In case, the land identified for this purpose belongs to some other department of the government, the state-level sanctioning and monitoring committee will be authorised to take decision to utilise this land through the Local Government Department and the Housing and Urban Development department in their, the spokesperson said.
Of Punjab's 2.77 crore population, 37.49 per cent live in urban areas, he said.
As more than 50 per cent of the state's population is forecast to be living in urban areas by 2041, affordable housing for the urban poor has become a necessity, the spokesperson said.
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