Mumbai: The Bombay High has received a petition following to seeking to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to implement the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) property tax Urban Local Body (ULB) level reforms filed by the Thane based political party.
The petition has been filed by Rajendra Phanse, general secretary of ‘Dharmarajya Paksha’, the civic body, in Dec2007 JNNURM scheme was launched it has been ignoring the implementation of property tax as prescribed under the scheme for ULBs.
Whereas, it is obligatory for civic body to follow rules mentioned under the NUURM shceme, which has been formed to exclude lack of abilities and losses of the contemporary property tax system.
Petition further cited that make the present system more efficient and effective, the ULB level reforms, as directed by JNNURM, should be implemented in totality.
The bench of justices comprising A M Thipsay and R D Dhanuka today posted the petition for hearing on June 14.

The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that National Building Organization (NBO), an attached office with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has constituted a Technical Group in September 2011, to assess the housing shortage during Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17). The Committee has not finalized the estimates till date. However, as per the estimation of a similar Technical Group constituted by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation in July 2006 to assess the housing shortage during Eleventh Five Year Plan Period (2007-12), the figures of urban housing shortage as on 31/03/2012 stood at 26.53 million.
Selja said, as ‘Land’ and ‘Colonisation’ are State subjects, it is for the States to take necessary steps to provide housing for all. However, in order to increase the housing for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Low Income Group (LIG) sections in cities, this Ministry has been providing assistance through following programmes and schemes in all urban areas including Tier-I cities :

i. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), supports provision of housing and basic services to urban poor in slums in 65 specified cities under the Sub Mission Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and in other cities and towns under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP).

ii. The Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP) provides for interest subsidy @ 5 % on housing loans to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Low Income Group (LIG).

iii. The scheme of Affordable Housing in Partnership seeks assembly of land for construction of affordable housing and provides Central Government assistance towards provision of internal and external infrastructure connectivity.

iv. In the first phase of ‘Rajiv AwasYojana’ (RAY), financial assistance to States that are willing to assign property rights to slum dwellers for provision of decent shelter and basic civic and social services is being provided.

Under the Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) Programme and the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), land cost is not financed except for acquisition of private land for schemes/ projects in the North Eastern States & hilly States, viz., Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir, the Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja said.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today Kumari Selja said, the Mission period was upto31.03.2012 and as such, no new sanction can be done under BSUP and IHSDP during the extended period upto 2014. Guidelines of BSUP and IHSDP do not provide additional central share to meet cost escalation. It is upto the States to provide additional state share to meet the cost escalation.

The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja said that in pursuance of the Government’s vision of creating a Slum-free India, ‘Rajiv AwasYojana’ (RAY) has been launched on 02.06.2011. The Phase I of Rajiv AwasYojana is for a period of two years from the date of approval of the scheme. The Scheme will provide financial assistance to States that are willing to assign property rights to slum dwellers for provision of decent shelter and basic civic and social services for slum redevelopment, and for creation of affordable housing stock. 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 would be borne by the Centre, including operation & maintenance of assets created under this scheme. For the North Eastern and Special Category States, the share of the Centre would be 90% including the cost of land acquisition, if required.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today Kumari Selja said, the Scheme is expected to cover about 250 cities, across the entire country by the end of 12th Plan (2017). The Affordable Housing in Partnership Scheme, which is intended to encourage public private partnerships for the creation of affordable housing stock has been dovetailed with RAY. Under this scheme, central support will be provided at the rate of Rs 50,000 per unit of affordable dwelling unit or 25% of the cost of civic infrastructure (external and internal), whichever is lower.
She said, to enable the urban poor to obtain credit for home loans at affordable rates, the existing Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP), which provides 5 % interest subsidy on loans up to Rs. One lakh, has also been dovetailed with RAY.
Kumari Selja said, under RAY, 8 pilot projects in 5 states with total project cost of Rs. 446.22 Crores involving Central Assistance of Rs. 197.09 Crores have been approved for construction of 8400 dwelling units. The First installment of Rs. 65.69 Crores has been released to the concerned states. Under AHP Scheme which has been dovetailed with RAY, 8 Projects have been sanctioned with a central assistance of Rs. 7.20Crores for construction of 5776 Affordable dwelling units and the first installment of Rs. 2.2 crore has been released. In addition, under Slum Free City Planning Scheme, i.e., the preparatory phase of RAY, Rs.99.98 crore has been released for undertaking preparatory activities for preparation of Slum Free City Plan of Actions including survey of slums and slum households, GIS mapping of cities, integration of GIS & MIS etc. in 34 States/UTs including Jharkhand.
As per Report received from the State Government, the City level Cells have been constituted in all the 4 cities and work related to slum identification, GIS Mapping and preparation of Pilot Projects has been initiated, she added.

The Minister of State for Urban Development Saugata Roy in a written reply to a query in Rajya Sabha today said that Planning Commission had constituted a Steering Committee on Urbanization to make recommendations in context of formulation of the 12th five year Plan. This Committee had in turn, constituted different Working Groups including Working Group on Urban Transport to suggest recommendations for various sub-sectors. The aforesaid Working Group on Urban Transport has inter-alia stated that Public Private Partnership in Metro Rail projects should be permitted if a project is found to be fit and viable for this approach on account of ridership alone. This, however, should not be linked with providing land for property development beyond what is needed for the operation of rail transit.
The recommendations of the different working groups were examined by the Steering Committee on Urbanization for making recommendations for formulation of 12th Plan. Its recommendations of various other expert bodies are input for formulating the 12th plan. The 12th Plan has not been finalized as yet by Planning Commission.

Noida: On this Tuesday, the officials of Noida and Greater Noida authorities decided to challenge the Allahabad High Court’s decision, as on Monday rejected their demand to nullify its direction to give 10 per cent developed plots to farmers whose land had been acquired.
Following to the case dated on 21st Oct, Allahabad High Court has directed to two agencies to allocated 10percent developed plots. . The court told the two bodies that it could not hear an appeal on its own decision.
Senior official of Noida and Greater Noida authorities said that, they would challenge the order in Supreme Court as there are several serious issues concerned with the developed land. The officials added that, Noida Authority has limited land to provide land to the affected farmers, and also said the Greater Noida Authority is suffering through financial crisis too.

New Delhi: Today Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath revealed the information that, in the last three years it has been reported that there are approx 170 cases of unfair trade practice and irregularities in Delhi Development Authority (DDA). While replying to a query in Lok Sabha, Kamal Nath said that there were 34 corruption related complaints in the DDA in 2009.
According to the report submitted by Nath, in 2010 the number raised to 74 whereas there were 65 corruption and irregularity related complaints in 2011.
However, according to the further details given by the Urban Development Minister in 2011, major penalty had been imposed on officers in 76 cases while minor penalty had been imposed in 13 cases.
In 2011 itself, three cases were under trial in various courts while another four cases were being investigated in the Economic Offences Wing.

New Delhi: The apex court has ruled that, “the state can fix higher stamp duty on property transactions done through power of attorney vested in an outsider, as against such power executed through one’s blood relatives like father, mother and wife.”
The bench of justices comprising R M Lodha and H L Gokhale said such classification cannot be termed as unconstitutional as the government can adopt differential stamp duties to check evasion and sale transactions resorted through and for extraneous considerations.
The apex bench has maintained the appeal filed by the Madhya Pradesh Govt. challenging the state high court’s decision to quash Clause(d), Article 45 of Schedule 1-A of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 which was brought in by the Indian Stamp (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Act, 2002 Act) as unconstitutional being violative of Article 14 (equality clause) of the Constitution of India.
Following to hike in stamp duty when asked to realtors they said, “The hike in property tax and stamp duty at this juncture is definitely going to negatively affect both the property selling and rental market. At current price levels, combined with high interest rates and slower economic growth, people will find this increase as further squeeze on their home buying budget. The same factors might lead to property owners reducing the rentals on their property to absorb a bit of the hike in the stamp duty on leave and license agreements. The increase in both property taxes and stamp duty tends to shift the market favourably towards the leave and license sector. In this case neither has been spared, so people will opt for the lesser pinching of the two, i.e. they will opt for more leave and license transactions,” Mr. Prashant Maharaj, CEO, Property Partners said.

The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that Government of Kerala had approached Housing & Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) for a loan of Rs.2500 crore in the Financial Year 2009-10 for their scheme ‘EMS Total Housing Programme’ where every houseless was to be provided a house and every landless family a site. Government of Kerala was asked to submit a detailed project report with acceptable security mechanism as per the extant guidelines of HUDCO, but no reply was received.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today Kumari Selja said, Government of Kerala had made a request for waiver of Rs.460 crore of the outstanding principal dues of the loan availed from HUDCO by Kerala State Housing Board. The request was not acceded to as it was considered to be detrimental for HUDCO’s viability and sustainability.
She said, in addition, 7 Detailed Project Reports(DPRs) were received under Basic Services to the Urban Poor(BSUP) and 53 DPRs were received under Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme(IHSDP)- components of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM). All these 60 DPRs have been approved for construction/upgradation of 23577and 26295 houses along with necessary infrastructure facilities respectively in the State of Kerala.

The Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways Dr. Tushar A. Chaudhary, today informed to in Lok sabha that Under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase VI, construction of 1,000km of expressway have been approved. Main criterion for selection of expressway corridors has been the volume of the traffic on the corridors.
Vadodara-Mumbai Corridor (400 km) being the highest density corridor has been given priority. Other identified stretches include Delhi-Chandigarh (249km) on NH-1 & NH-22, Bangalore-Chennai (334km) on NH-4, Delhi-Jaipur (261km) on NH-8, Delhi-Meerut (66km) on NH-58, Kolkata-Dhanbad (277km) on NH-2, and Delhi-Agra (200km) on NH-2, out of which remaining 600 is km to be undertaken based on outcome of pre-feasibility studies. Originally, it was targeted to award concession by 2009-10. Delays have been mainly on account of issues pertaining to consultations with State Governments regarding finalisation of alignment, as a result final feasibility reports were delayed. Delhi-Jaipur expressway is also part of pre-feasibility studies. Presently work relating to fixing the alignment of the expressway is going on.