PM Jan Dhan Yojana to boost housing for all programme

The 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna', to be launched on August 28, will provide a vital missing link in achieving the objective of "Housing for All" by enhancing the access of urban poor to cheap credit through the formal banking system, a senior official said here.
"The government should play a role of enabler and facilitator and ensure that private sector is enthused to take up affordable housing projects.
"NDA government aims to provide housing for all by 2022 with the active support from banking and financial sector," said G S Sandhu, Secretary, Department of Financial Services while addressing a seminar on "Credit Flow to Affordable Housing and Interest Subvention" organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation here.

He said the banking sector, as a whole, had competing demands for loans from other sectors of the economy and hence extending credit to individual urban poor with small-ticket loans may not sometimes be their priority.
He urged the banking sector to come forward and extend housing credit to the urban poor, with a missionary zeal and to set up a dedicated housing finance desk in select branches.
The Secretary asked banks to consider setting up a specialised fund, on lines of Pooled Municipal Debt Obligation Facility, to finance affordable housing projects.

Earlier, Secretary, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Anita Agnihotri said that the credit flow to the segments of below Rs 5 lakh had come down drastically.

There are both demand side and supply side constraints resulting in housing shortage of around 19 million in the urban areas, she said, adding that housing and livelihoods are interlinked and they cannot be viewed in a segregated manner.
She said the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry was going to launch a Mission for "Housing for All", of which interest subvention would be an integral part.
Emphasising that unless credit flow to urban poor increases, Agnihotri said new houses that are being built will not be occupied and urged the private sector to undertake affordable housing projects for the low-income groups, since 96 per cent of the housing shortage was confined to this category.