Housing and Urban Corporation Limited Ltd (HUDCO) in collaboration with the Municipal Affairs Department organized a State level one-day workshop on Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (PMAY-CLSS) at Hotel Saramati, Super Market on Tuesday.
Mission director PMAY-HFA (U) and deputy secretary, Temjensangla, who reviewed the existing progress under CLSS in the state, stated that the scheme initiated by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, aimed at providing household to people belonging to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), Lower Income Group (LIG) and Middle Income group (MIG), currently covers 32 statutory towns/ administrative units in Nagaland and 23 beneficiaries have availed the scheme so far.
Temjensangla informed that all statutory towns as per the 2011 census and towns notified subsequently were eligible for coverage under the mission and the ambitious mission with all its components would implemented till March 31, 2022.
It may be mentioned that the PMAY- HFA was launched by the Prime Minister in 2015 and implemented in Nagaland mid 2016.
She said that the scheme aims to provide “Housing for all by 2022” coinciding with India’s 75th Independence Day by addressing the housing requirement of the urban poor including slum dwellers via four verticals– rehabilitation of slum dwellers with the intervention of private dwellers using land as a resource, provision of affordable housing for the economically weaker section through credit linked subsidy, affordable housing in partnership with public and private sectors, and subsidy for beneficiary- led housing construction/enhancement.
Regional chief, HUDCO, Dimapur, Dr Sanaton Deka also gave a presentation on the PMAY-CLSS wherein he highlighted the four categories eligible for the scheme: Economically Weaker section (EWS) – income of upto Rs. 3 lakhs pa ,(Lower Income Group) LIG– above Rs. 3 lakhs to Rs. 6 lakhs per annum , MIG-I (Medium Income Group-I) – above Rs. 6 lakhs to Rs. 12 lakh pa, and MIG-II (Medium Income Group –II) above Rs. 12 lakh to Rs. 18 lakh pa. The maximum loan eligibility ranges from Rs. 6 lakhs to Rs. 12 lakhs and the interest subsidy is between 3 to 6.5 percent pa depending on the category of the beneficiary. The loan tenure is a maximum of 20 years and may be extend depending on the primary lender institute.
Dr Deka, in his presentation, also highlighted hurdles faced in the implementation of the scheme. Issues like identification of targeted beneficiaries eligible under CLSS by the PLI and support of ULB/NGOs needed to be augmented. Land holding in majority of the cases was inherited with no title deed available and only record of rights, making creation of equitable mortgage difficult, incidence of land holding by women members of the family was very low and inclusion of female members as owners involved expenses and legal hassles in EWS/LIG.
He also said mortgage preceded by searching of property and related expenses were also deemed to be the discouraging factors for low quantum loan under this scheme.
Due to high land cost, he said promoters/builders find it difficult to construct houses in statutory towns at the cost affordable to eligible beneficiaries of EWS/LIG.
SBI manager (sanction) regional business office, S K Debnath and loan processing officer of the SBI regional business office also spoke on SBI’s housing scheme called ‘Tribal Plus,’ while also touching upon other hurdles in PMAY that needed to be resolved
The other hurdles that were highlighted by the banks was on recovery of loans, as lands in Nagaland were not under the SARFAESI Act of 2002, that will allow banks and other financial institution to auction residential/commercial properties (of defaulter) to recover loans. Also, baring Dimapur and Kohima, lands in other parts were not surveyed or notified.
The other highlights of the workshop included inauguration of the programme by OSD Municipal Department, Sanjay Pandey, and discussion on the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between bankers and nodal agencies.
Close to 40 ULB administrators and bank representatives attended the workshop.