Himalayan Times (1955)

Eight

^■imnliitjit.i i?»n;"

February 1% 1955

other mines and raise the
total number of workers
for whom housing prov ■
s.oi) has been made under
the schem to abou 3
million. Apart from thi ,
about 400,1)00 workers in
the coal an I mica mining
industry are already eligi-
ble for Bp cial grants under
. the subsidised scheme.

Under the extended
scheme, a State Govern-
ment buildh g tenements
lor mine or fac ory wor-
kers, can get 50 per cent
r of the admitted cost of
construction as outright
subsidy from the Central
Government and the re-
maining 50 per cent as
loan to be paid back in
i5 years. 11 it is an
employer who undertakes
the construction of tene
monts, the Central Govern-
ment will pay him 25
per cent of the admitted
cost as subsidy and 37i
percent as load to be re-
paid in 15 years, To
cooperatives ol workers,
the Government will gve
25 per cent of the admit-
ted cost as subsidy, and
50 per cent of it as loan
to be repaid in 25 years.

Satisfactory Response
The Centre has so far
sanctioned the construc-
tion of 45,000 houses under
the Subsidised Industrial
Housing Scheme "and ano-
ther 6,227 houses for the
coal and mica mine wor-
kers. The response to this
schema has been fairly

satisfactory so far. Even
though, the scheme was
announced late in 1952,
over Rs 8! crore have
been already sanctioned
in the form of subsidies
and loans to Sate Govern-
ments and other agencies.

Figures of financial
assistance sanctioned and
disbursed under the Sub-
sidized Industrial Housing
Scheme upto October 31,
1954, are :

(In Lnkhs of Rupees)

Loan Subsidy

Rs. Rs.

Financial assis-
tance sanction-
ed. 005.0 598.4

Financial assis-
tance disbursed. 333.1 325.1

Number of tenements
sanctioned tilt

31-10 1954 45,'-C0 spjwmt.

Number of tenements
constiucted till
31-10-1954 19,2;i0' „

Recently the Govern-
ment has also announced
the eagerly awaited details
of the low-income group
housing scheme.

Aid under this schema
is envisaged primarily for
persons who do not already-
own a house and their
income does not exceed
Rs. 6,000 per annum.
There will, however, be
no objection to the ad-
vancing of loans to an
individual even if he owns
a house already provided
that the additional house
is needed for his bona
fide' residential purpose.

Disbursement of Loans
The scheme deals es-
sentially with the disburse-
ment of loans by the
Central Government to
State Governments, which
in their turn, are expected
to pass on the loans to
indiViduals or to coopera-
tive housing societies be-
longing to the low income,
groups. 1 he Stale Govern-
ments can also, if they
so desire, loan the money
to housing finance corpo-
ration for the entire State
which provide all the faci-
lities to the low income
groups for the construction
of houses.

The li>an assistance
by the Central Govern-
ment) will not exceed 80
pi r cent of the actual
cost (of the house inclu-
ding land for which the
S'ate Governments inny
apply for aid subject to
a maximum of Rs. 8,000
per hruse.

Since 83 per cent of
the uopulation of India
lives in villages, the prob-
lem of rurel housing is
too large to be capable
of soluiii n through subsi-
dies or loans. The two
methods which the Govern-
ment has therefore, adop-
ted aro (1) to demonstrate,
through model houses
built in selected areaB,
how to effect an improve-
ment in housing standards,
and (2) to assist ths
villager in building better
(Continued on page 10)