TN targets nine cities under RAY to be made slum-free

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

In a bid to make the state slum free, Tamil Nadu government has selected nine urban agglomerations under Rajiv Awas Yojana for preparation of slum free city plans, according to sources.

 Sources told Express that the likely nine cities are Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Erode, Tiruppur, Trichy, Tirunelveli, Salem and Vellore. Sources said RAY may be extended to all the 25 urban agglomerations with more than 100,000 population based on 2011 census and to all urban areas subsequently.

 According to state government estimates about 13.96 lakh families (59 lakh persons) are living in the urban slums in Tamil Nadu. Similarly, a report of Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation estimates the slum population in Tamil Nadu at 86.44 lakh in 2011.  

Rajiv Awas Yojana, which was formulated by Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, envisages that each state should prepare a State Slum-free Plan of Action (POA) which includes preparation of legislation for assignment of property rights to slumdwellers, upgradation of existing slums and action to prevent new slums.

 The preparation of slum-free city Plan will broadly involve slum redevelopment or rehabilitation plans based on survey of all slums – notified and non-notified, mapping of slums using the state-of-art technology, integration of geo-spatial and socio-economic data and identification of development model proposed for each slum, according to Rajiv Awas Yojana Guidelines for Slum-free City Planning.

Sources said focus would be accorded to rehabilitation of slums in objectionable areas in Chennai and top 10 Urban Agglomerations initially, followed by slum rehabilitation in other cities.  

Interestingly, Civil society has welcomed Rajiv Awas Yojana and said it will bridge the gap in housing. Vanessa of Citizen Rights Forum said that housing process under RAY should ensure inclusiveness of the cities besides taking into fact adequate community consultations are conducted and urban land is mapped.

Some of the key RAY guidelines on slum-free state plan:

--- Preparation of state-wide legislation for assignment of property rights to slum households

--- Legislative changes for commitment to reservation of 10-15 per cent of land in every new public or private housing projects

--- Earmarking of  25% of municipal budget for the urban poor

--- Amendment to enactments governing town planning, urban development and municipalities to enable revision of population density norms, land use for accommodation of in situ regularization to incentivise private sector participation

-- map all the slums, notified as well as non-notified, and all unauthorised colonies and regularised unauthorised

colonies unserved by municipal services.

Source: Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation