Central assistance worth Rs.3200 crore released to NE States: Hardeep S Puri

Naga Republic News

Union Minister of State (I/C) for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep S Puri said that central assistance worth Rs 3200 crore has been released to northeastern states during the last four years.

According to a PIB report, the Minister also informed that construction of more than 2.3 lakh houses have been sanctioned for the urban poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas yojana (PMAY-Urban) in the North-Eastern States during the last 4 years. About 1.16 lakh houses have already been grounded for construction.

While reviewing the progress of Urban Missions in the North-Eastern States at New Delhi on December 1, Puri informed that this approval needs to be seen in the context of 26,041 houses which were sanctioned during ten years between 2004-14 under JNNURM and Rajiv Awas Yojana.

I was in Agartala today to review the implementation status of various urban flagship schemes in the North Eastern states. I am impressed with the momentum that progress & development in these states has now gained. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/inZiIqRhrT

— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) December 1, 2018

Out of the houses sanctioned during 2004-14, only 21,159 houses were constructed and the remaining 4892 houses are under construction. Central Assistance amounting to Rs 3570 crore has been sanctioned and Rs 1520 crore released during the last 4 years as against Rs 683 crore sanctioned and Rs 586 crore released during 2004-2014, he added.

Under PMAY (Urban), government provides assistance in the range of Rs.1.00 lakh to Rs.2.67 lakh to each beneficiary under different verticals.

Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary in the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and senior officials from all the North-Eastern states besides Mission Directors in the Ministry participated in the 2-day review of the missions.

The review exercise was undertaken in several sessions spreading over 2 days and covered Implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Smart City Mission, all launched on June 25, 2015.

The review also covered the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) which was launched on October 2, 2014 besides the continuing 10% Lump Sum Scheme for North-East and North-Eastern Region Urban Development Programme (NERUDP), Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-NationalUrban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) and Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA).

During the review, it was informed that 12 towns of N-E States have been included in the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation for Urban Transformation (AMRUT) for providing water taps to all urban households besides improving water supply to the normative level of 135 litres per capita per day, expanding sewerage and drainage networks, promoting non-motorised transport and development of open spaces in mission cities.

Under AMRUT, Ministry of Urban Development supports 90% of the project costs in N-E States as against only one third to half of the project costs in other States. The entire State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) for the North-East States envisaging an investment of Rs 1506.62 crore has been approved.

While projects worth Rs 332 crore are under implementation, projects worth Rs 21.37 crore have been completed so far. The state of Manipur has awarded contracts for almost 100% of the projects approved under SAAP. Credit rating has been completed in 8 Mission cities.

Tripura has replaced all targeted 34,500 streetlights with LED lights and Meghalaya has exceeded the target for new water tap connections by installing 10,168 connections.

The Online Building plan approval system (OBPS) has been implemented in 436 AMRUT cities. A total of 85 projects worth Rs 1371 crore have been taken up under NERDUP. A total of 49 projects worth Rs 824 crore have already been completed.

During the Smart City Mission review, it was noted that 10 Smart Cities in North East have been selected in various rounds of City Challenge so far. Itanagar and Shillong have been added in Round 4 during this year. Rs 1024 Crore worth of Central assistance has been released to North Eastern States under Smart Cities Mission so far.

Presently, projects worth Rs 443 crore are under implementation. Namchi (Sikkim) has made tremendous progress. The Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) is the ‘brain’ of a city, integrating all utilities and services through digital technology and helps in making the city ‘smart’.

An ICCC developed in a cloud based system for the North Eastern cities would have the advantage of lowering the cost of development, faster deployment and peer to peer learning among cities. The MoU that has been signed with BEL will facilitate in the development of a cloud based ICCC system in the cities of Imphal, Itanagar, Pasighat, Kohima, Namchi, Gangtok and Shillong.

As regards Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM-U) Urban, the states of Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland have been declared ODF status. 98 towns in NE have become Open Defecation Free (ODF) while more than 47,000 Individual Household toilets and 2310 Community & Public toilets have been constructed under the Mission.

Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim have achieved 100% Door to Door collection (D2D) of garbage. It was informed that Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh will achieve ODF status by December 2018.Meghalaya will achieve ODF by January 2019. Thus whole of North East states will achieve ODF by January 2019.

Under DAY-NULM 13332 Self Help Groups (SHGs) have been formed and 48,827candidates imparted training. The state of Mizoram has done well in provision of shelters for homeless. Tripura has constructed 250 houses for shelter.

RERA Rules under RERA have been notified by Assam and Tripura. Assam, Tripura Mizoram and Sikkim have established the interim Real Estate Regulatory Authorities. Interim Real Estate Appellate Tribunal has been established in Tripura only. Assam is in the process of establishing the permanent Authority and interim Tribunal and the same would be in place by 30.01.2019.

All the states are in the process of notifying the rules and are in the advanced stage. Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 is landmark legislation aimed at protecting the interests of the Home buyers. All the states in North East need to urgently implement the Act so that the benefits reach all the stakeholders.