Finalise National Rental Housing Policy and Model Tenancy Act at the earliest: Hardeep Puri

Moneycontrol News

Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, who completed one month in office, has made it clear to officials of his ministry to submit progress reports on urban missions every fortnight and directed that the National Rental Housing Policy and the Model Tenancy Act, under consideration for long, should be finalised at the earliest.

He also asked DDA to immediately notify the Land Pooling Policy cleared by the ministry, sources said.

“Anything that can be measured can be changed. It implies that if we don’t monitor and measure the outcomes, the intended change may not come through” was his caveat to the senior officials, sources said.

The minister also prioritized the outcomes to be monitored under each mission like the number of Waste-to-Wealth projects made functional and toilets built during the fortnight under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) vis-à-vis targets state-wise, number of water supply connection provided under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), projects completed in each of the first batch of 20 smart cities, affordable houses sanctioned and built under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), number of persons given skill training and placements enabled besides number of individual and group enterprises provided with subsidized bank loans under Deen Dayal Antyodaya-NULM.

He said that the progress report should highlight the efforts made by the central and state governments to speed up execution and implementation hurdles resolved during the last fifteen days and reasons for delay,  if any.

He also underlined the need for effective dissemination of the narrative emerging on the ground under different missions at central, state and city level through appropriate communication strategies to further improve informed participation of citizens in urban governance, planning and execution.

Stating that about Rs 5 lakh crore investments/expenditure has been so far approved under new urban missions, Puri said that no effort shall be spared to ensure their realisation.

He referred to his first month in office as ‘quite eventful’ having announced the PPP Policy to promote private investments in affordable housing, directed a time bound review of FSI/FAR norms in 53 cities with a population of above one million each and State capitals and a  comprehensive review of performance and outcomes under JNNURM,  released the New Metro Rail Policy, flagged the issue of safeguarding home buyers’ interest in the context of insolvency proceedings initiated in some cases and approved a Rs 300 crore proposal for quick and visible improvement in solid waste management in the national capital.

He particularly referred to having addressed letters to thousands of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in the national capital urging them to ensure segregation of solid waste at source besides decentralized processing of such waste.

Puri noted that such a flurry of actions is an indication of the priority accorded by the Government to urban development and stressed the need to sustain the momentum under new urban missions, sources added.