The minister said that the Housing Ministry is priviledged to anchor some of the Prime Minister’s flagship programmes, including Swachh Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Housing for All and Smart Cities project.
We are trying our best to ensure that homebuyers, especially those who have been affected the most, get relief as we go along. However, tweaking of the Insolvency Code to protect homebuyers has to be done in a pragmatic manner. This was stated by Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, in an interview with CNBC TV-18 on Monday.
Talking to CNBC TV-18, the minister said that the Housing Ministry is priviledged to anchor some of the Prime Minister’s flagship programmes, including Swachh Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Housing for All and Smart Cities project. They are also priviledged to be associated with the implementation of these programmes when they have acquired critical mass. “We are hoping to find ways to make the implementation (of these programmes) even more effective,” Puri said.
In order to do this, they have started with fortnightly reviews of these programmes. “There is also need to quantify how physical targets are being met,” the minister said.
Talking about affordable housing, Puri said that the government has already approved around 26 lakh affordable homes since 2015. Some states are also doing well on this front. For instance, Andhra Pradesh plans to construct 5.6 million affordable homes in 15 months. Some states need encouragement too. Whatever be the case, “we are sure we will see visible results on Housing for All by 2019,” Puri said.
He said that housing is an important sector and also a large employer. He believes that the Prime Minister’s housing programme will have a transformative effect. However, there is need for banks to be more forthcoming towards the needs of the affordable housing sector.
Talking about RERA, the minister said that after 70 years the country has got a regulator for the real estate sector. However, while complying with RERA, some states have tweaked the provisions of ongoing projects. “That has led to problems, but now we are seized of the problem (and) we are looking at what can be done in terms of RERA,” the minister said.
