The Economic Times Pune - October, 2005

A 20 member Task Force which has formulated the National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy 2005, under the union ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation, found an inverse relationship between crime and ownership of property.

Crime, members of this committee found, is much lower if people owned the house. The obvious relationship would be a vested interest in ensuring that your own property is not damaged. Also, ownership means that people are keen on ensuring that their surroundings remain good. This is apart from the purely materialistic reason to maintain real estate values in the event of a re-sale.

The issue assumes significance, given the migration of people from rural to urban areas, in search of employment and the subsequent creation of slums and a lack of housing in terms of tenure, structure and access to services.

Basing its projections on historical data, the 20-member Task Force, which has drawn up the Policy noted that by 2025, there would be a 68 percent rise in the population of the country's 4,368 towns and cities. These 4,368 locations today have population of a minimum of 10,000 people.

"Overall, urban habitats will see population growing. While the average growth in the next 20 years is expected to be 68 percent, it could be higher in some, like Pune, and lower in others", Kumar Gera, President CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India), and member of the Task Force, told reporters.

The demand - supply gap is estimated to be 8.89 dwelling units for urban areas only. The deficit and subsequent additions would need huge investments.", the report notes.

The main thrust of the report appears to be to corporatise the Rs 80,000-crore real estate development sector, still seen as a largely unorganised one.

While it has suggestions and proposals for all aspects of the housing sector, the fact that urban development is a state subject is its biggest hurdle. Hence, despite the Central government's suggestion that state's repeal the Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULCA), four states have still to do so. These are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand. Since Budget '06 has included reform conditionalities to the Rs. 5,500 crore National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM) in the 60 cities, there appear to have been few takers.

As part of its follow up recommendations, the policy has suggested that the Central government set up a high-level monitoring committee to periodically review the implementation of the National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy '05. It has also suggested states prepare a State Urban Housing and Habitat Action Plan (SUHHAP), outlining a road map of actions pertaining to institutional, legal, regulatory and financial initiatives in relation to the supply of land, modification of Acts/Bye laws, technology promotion, infrastructure provisions, slum improvement, etc.

The Central government could set up a National Commission on Human Settlements (NCHS) to assess the sustainability, balanced regional development, shelter status, access to basic services, nature and dimension of proverty. It could also monitor the frame work of the state - level set up