Centre hikes monetary assistance in housing prog for poor

With an apparent eye on elections, the Centre today hiked by Rs 25,000 the monetary assistance under its housing scheme for the poor, giving primacy to scheduled castes, tribals and minorities.
Under the new guidelines for the Indira Awas Yojana notified today, the Centre also decided to transfer its share of the funding to the state governments directly instead of allocating it to the districts.
"The cost of a 250 sq ft housing unit is now Rs 70,000 as against Rs 45,000 earlier. For Naxal affected districts and hill states the per unit cost has been hiked to Rs 75,000 from Rs 48,500," Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters here.

He said the Centre has also doubled the assistance given to states for procuring a homestead site for the landless poor from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000.
States have been instructed to give "overriding priority" in allocation of IAY houses to freed bonded labourers, freed manual scavengers and particularly vulnerable tribal groups, Ramesh said.
For the IAY, the Centre and the states share is fixed at 75:25 ratio.

Noting that only 21 per cent houses built under IAY had toilets, Ramesh said under the revised guidelines, building a toilet along with the IAY unit has been made mandatory.
"The last instalment under the scheme would not be released until a toilet is built along with the house," he said.

Another modification to the scheme is fixing targets for SC/ST and minority communities which would be proportionate to the population in respective states.