UP to spend Rs 1,500 cr for BPL housing

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to make a targeted expenditure of Rs 1,500 crore for providing free housing to below poverty line (BPL) families in the current financial year under the central Indira Housing Scheme.

During 2011-12, the target is to provide housing to 332,000 BPL families in the state under the welfare scheme, state rural development commissioner Sanjiv Kumar said here.

So far, Rs 335 crore has been spent in the current financial year out of the total available funds of Rs 662 crore and over 24,000 houses have been constructed. These include over 13,200 housing units for scheduled caste/scheduled tribe (SC/ST) families.

During 2010-11 financial year, the Centre and the state released Rs 1,150 crore and Rs 336 crore respectively under the scheme. The Centre had set a target of providing housing to 340,000 BPL families at an expenditure of Rs 1,534 crore in the last financial year.

Till March 2011, a total of Rs 1,451 crore had been spent out of the available funds of Rs 1,516 crore under the scheme and over 300,000 housing units constructed, of which SC/ST were provided with 185,000 units, Kumar informed.

The scheme is meant to provide free housing to destitute BPL families. Each beneficiary is given Rs 45,000 in two installments for construction of their houses.