Rs91 crore more for Gujarat's urban poor

The Gujarat government will provide additional assistance of Rs91crore for building homes for the urban poor living in municipality areas all over Gujarat. The state urban development minister, Nitin Patel, made this announcement. The state government has provided the benefit of the scheme to 24,769 families in 32 municipalities.

"The chief minister has decided to increase the state's assistance under this scheme. As per the scheme,  Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP), the centre gives 80% funding, state government bears 10% and 10% is contributed by the beneficiary of the scheme," the minister said.

Patel further said, "The union government had set the cost of a unit at Rs80,000. However, as cost of construction material has gone up it has increased the figure to Rs1 lakh, which is still not enough. As per the given specifications, the minimum expense to build the house is between Rs1.25 lakh and Rs1.5 lakh. So, the state government has decided to provide an additional Rs35,000 as the state government's assistance apart from the Rs10,000 regular contribution." The state government has given the land for the construction of the houses free of cost. So, apart from the cost of land, the government is giving additional financial assistance to the beneficiaries, he added.