Private sector has to pay for the Governments failure in EWS housing sector

I have written many times about the failure of the government to provide any sort of succor for those who cannot afford a 20 -30 lakh rupee house. I have written that all its departments have failed to deliver even a single dwelling unit at low prices to the poor and the middle class in the last 5 years.

A developer told me that the latest government rules will also systematically kill the prospect of any group housings getting built in the state even for those who are not so poor.

Group housing flats are generally being sold at Rs 25 Lakhs each or more. I don’t know of any proper housing being sold in Uttrakhand for less than that except for some box like structures being sold near Roorkee for around Rs 10 lakhs.

Now they are going to become more expensive, because of Governments `Tughlaki Farmaan’ (dictat). Anybody who builds a group of flats will build 15% area for the EWS and the LIG housing. He will then transfer the same to the Government at a fixed price. The govt. will then allot them to whoever they think fit.  The builder is also supposed to deposit a bank guarantee of a certain percentage  of the cost of development until  the work is over.

As if the taxes were not enough, these are expenses difficult to recover, another uncertainty for the builder. He will just load it onto the buyer. After all he is a builder. His job is to build and sell and to make profit.

The builder is already supposed to construct the houses and all the amenities completely, get an occupation certificate and then only will he be allowed to sell. If he charges a percentage of cost from the buyer in advance, a huge service tax is payable.

Somebody wrote to me in response to my earlier article about housing in Sidcul , I am told that the place where Deep Ganga apartments now stand in Haridwar, there were houses  for the industrial workers which were broken for building five storied apartments.

The governments hands have now been tied because of the announcement of the Election schedule but the fact that this condition will have to be removed otherwise the little activity that is happening in the organized housing sector will also stop.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN THEN

At present the most attractive/ easy way to build a house in this state is to build it illegally. Take some agricultural land, cut it into plots and build houses on it, big houses, very big houses and small houses. Land will be cheap because it has wrong land use. There will be no permissions involved, no taxes, development or municipal. You will electricity and water by bribing your way through or by getting a Gram Pradhan Sanction. Bank loans are hard to find for these houses.

It is also possible to get hold of some land in a `Low income colony’ on a Patta. It is like  a possession letter  handed over by one to the other, sometimes it could have been given by  a Pradhan or some past owner of the land. It has doubtful legal validity. People build houses on these in the face of threats of evictions and demolitions. They have no choice.

When these tenements become large in number, the government, any government has only few choices. One is to shoot all the people and the Second is  to resettle them in a safer place and the Third is to build roads and drains and to make that area legal. It is like letting a disease grow till it becomes life threatening before starting some treatment.

In both types of Colonies described above, there will be no roads or drains because there are no agency involved, sometimes people may build roads and drains collectively. Sewage disposal will be with the help of Soak pit and septic tank anyway.

One day a colony like this will get a name, a Hindi Daily will make a sign board outside. Bye and bye there will be a representation to make the colony legal and after some years, the colony will be made legal, every body will pay some money and they will get a sanction. The whole of sahastradhara road on the right side was built like this. Huge ` bastis’  along the canal road are built like this.

Its quite sweet, people don’t pay taxes, government doesn’t build amenities, doesn’t provide services, Un organized development happens, no wide roads, no setbacks, no greenery, but one day politicians come and build roads with MPLAD funds or MLALAD funds, Slowly one haphazard growth with a large no. of houses gets added to the city.

I am secretly happy because some more people have a roof over their head.  `Jugaad’ has won. If the government had its way these same people would be living in the slums along the Bindaal river, after all they are the ones who have the unenviable title of being `The biggest enemies of housing for the poor’

 

Param Jigyasu