The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that in pursuance of the Government’s vision of creating a Slum-free India
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today Kumari Selja said, fifty percent (50 %) of the cost of provision of basic civic and social infrastructure and amenities and of housing, including rental housing, and transit housing for in-situ redevelopment – in slums of Delhi would be borne by the Centre, including operation & maintenance of assets created under this scheme.
She said, under the preparatory phase of RAY, central assistance of Rs. 9.82 crore has been released to Delhi
Kumari Selja said, it is not possible to indicate the time frame within which all the slum dwellers would be covered as the progress of the scheme would depend on the commitment of the State Government of Delhi to mobilize the technical and financial resources.
The Minister said, RAY is expected to cover about 250 cities, across the entire country by the end of the 12th Plan (2017). The selection of the cities will be done in consultation with the Centre. The States would be required to include all the mission cities of JNNURM, preferably cities with more than 3lakh population as per 2001 Census; and other smaller cities, with due consideration to the pace of growth of the city, of slums, predominance of minority population, and areas where property rights are assigned. Under the Slum Free City Planning Scheme i.e. the preparatory phase of RAY, an amount of Rs.99.98 crore has been released to 34 states / UTs for undertaking preparatory activities. The list of 163 cities for which these funds are to be utilized for undertaking preparatory activities is enclosed at Annexure.
