Bhubaneswar Development Body Plans to Allot homes to the Poor (EWS)

With the construction of tenements almost done, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) is gearing up to allot units in its affordable housing projects for economically weaker sections.

The housing projects where allotments will be made are in Ghatikia, Chandrasekharpur, Gadakana, and Subuddhipur.

The four projects are constructed in public-private partnership (PPP) mode under the ‘Housing for All’ scheme of the state government.

A high-level meeting in this regard was held recently where officials discussed on finalizing the modalities for the smooth allotment of houses to the beneficiaries from the tagged slums.

“As per the decisions taken in the meeting, priority will be given to those People who have made their initial financial contribution for the allotment of houses while others will be given a specific time to pay to get their dwelling units.

All the eligible beneficiaries from the tagged slums will be given an opportunity for allotment of houses on priority in the projects. We are working in close coordination with the civic body to get the list of eligible beneficiaries for the allotment of houses,” BDA vice-chairman” Balwant Singh said.

He said that the objective is to rehabilitate every family from the tagged slums and make the entire slum land available for public infrastructure and other developments. Part rehabilitation of the slums will not serve the purpose of the housing projects, Singh said.”

Sources said an initial amount of Rs1.20 lakh will be collected from EWS (economically weaker sections) category for the allotment of houses and Rs 1 lakh will be taken in installments. For the non-EWS beneficiaries from the slums, the decision is Yet to be taken by the urban development department.

For the smooth execution of various upcoming public infrastructure and development projects where slum households are likely to be affected, it was also suggested in the meeting to construct at least 5,000 transit house facilities at various locations in the city.

Officials said the BDA will put a proposal before the government in this regard for funds to construct the transit houses. Slum dwellers evicted for any sort of development project will be moved to the new transit houses, they said.”

Slum leaders, however, are still reluctant to move into the houses. “We are not going to move into those houses. We want to land in the place from where we are being evicted. We don’t want matchbox-size flats,” the president of All Odisha Basti Surakhya Manch ..Pratap Sahu, said.