The Government is committed to ensure a decent living habitat to all in urban areas and in particular, for the poor and has taken various initiatives in this regard, asserted the Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri today. The flagship new urban missions launched during the last three years constitute an integrated urban habitat model, he further said. Shri Puri spoke at a programme organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on the occasion of ‘World Habitat Day’ on the theme ‘Housing Policies : Affordable Homes’ in New Delhi.The Minister said the new urban missions launched by the Government like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) is at the core of ensuring affordable homes to the poor and the needy while other missions like the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) aim at enabling the much needed basic infrastructure for a decent habitat. Under PMAY(Urban), the Ministry has so far approved construction of 28,57,321 affordable homes for Economically Weaker Sections, Low and Middle Income Groups with an investment of Rs.1,54,180 cr. Central assistance of Rs.44,278 cr has been approved for these houses.
Shri Puri said that the Government has taken several initiatives to give a boost to housing sector and in particular to affordable housing to meet the housing needs of the people. He further noted that the real estate sector has run into some problems for various reasons and he had reasons to believe that this sector will soon bounce back. Shri Puri said after a long time, the Government has brought this sector under a regulatory framework in the interest of the sector. Shri Puri, while referring to the Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030 noted that India’s performance would be the key to achieve these goals at global scale. Noting that 15 of the 17 SDGs are in the domain of urban local bodies, he said the Government is endeavoring to improve the capacities of city governments.