WB wants Centre to charge 'nominal' interest for poor

Hyderabad, Nov 17 (UNI) Urging the Housing and Urban Development Corporation to provide loans to the poor for housing at a nominal rate of interest, West Bengal Housing Minister Ashok Bhattacharya today urged the Centre to step up allocation under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development programme (IHSDP).

''Development of small and medium towns are essential to prevent migration, specially small to big cities. As the focus is mainly on large cities under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, the Centre should make more allocation under the IHSDP so that urban poor and slums in small towns were not neglected,'' he said taking part in the national conference on Housing and Human Settlements here.

''Simultaneously medium towns registering high growth should be covered as mission cities for development,'' he said.

While private sector participation in construction of multistoried tenements using land as resource could be considered, it was primarily the responsibility of the state government and urban local bodies to take up rehabilitation programme, he said.

In new townships, minimum 15 per cent of housing should be for economically weaker section category, which should be provided free of cost to local bodies to be alloted to service providors. The Muncipality would realise specific amount from beneficary and keep it in a development fund to be utilised for creating and maintaining such facilities, he added.

Saying that beneficiary contribution was necessary to provide feeling of ownership, he urged the HUDCO to bring down the interest rate as in many cases the beneficiary of housing programmes was not at all in a position to provide the entire amount upfront.

Mr Bhattacharya emphasised the need for capcity building of slum dwellers to raise their economic standard by not displacing them from their present localities where they were gainfully employed. In additon to improvement of infrastructure and provision of housing for slum dwellers, focus should be on improving their economic conditions ''so that they do not fall to temptation and sell their dwelling unit only to squat elsewhere,'' he added.

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