The urban affairs ministry's proposal to allow 100 per cent foreign equity in the housing and real estate sector has been put on the back burner, with the group of ministers, constituted under the chairmanship of external affairs minister Jaswant Singh, not having met even once since the group's constitution in December 1998.

According to sources, the government, because of its lameduck status, is unlikely to take a decision on foreign investments in the housing sector because of the sensitive nature of the proposal. Even before the Vajpayee government lost confidence vote , it was divided over the proposal, forcing the Union cabinet to refer the issue to the ministerial group.

Officials also said that the ministerial group was not scheduled to meet in the near future. Besides Jaswant Singh, communications minister Jagmohan, HRD minister M M Joshi and urban affairs minister Ram Jethmalani are the other members of the group.

The brief for the ministerial group was to study the ministry's proposal and make its recommendation, mainly on the extent of foreign e