The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has asked the National Housing Bank (NHB), HUDCO and public-sector banks to more proactively promote the Credit-Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) of the Prime Minister Awaas Yojana (PMAY) (Urban) to meet the target of Housing For All by 2022. It has also reviewed the progress of affordable housing under CLSS and directed NHB and HUDCO, the two central nodal agencies, to prepare action plans to ensure that at least one-fourth of the mission target is met under the CLSS component of PMAY (Urban). The ministry has also directed that at least 2 lakh MIG beneficiaries should be identified by December this year. What’s more, new housing finance companies have been set up and registered in the past couple of months. Notably, affordable housing loans below Rs 10 lakh have surged 43 per cent in FY2017. “We are working to give a major boost to the CLSS component under PMAY (Urban),” affirms Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Joint Secretary (Housing), Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India. “We are trying to make it more institutional to really scale up CLSS. So far, nearly 48,000 households have been disbursed interest subsidy of about Rs 920 crore under CLSS. If it really scales up, you can have 500 beneficiaries in one project itself.” Further, to facilitate the participation of the private sector to fulfil the growing demand for affordable housing, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation has prepared a ‘Draft Model Public Private Partnership Policy for Affordable Housing in India’. It will soon issue supplementary guidelines to enable private investment in affordable housing even on private lands under the ‘Affordable Housing in Partnership’ component of the PMAY (Urban). “We are trying to encourage states to have more private participation and are sharing some more PPP models with them,” adds Mishra. “We are encouraging the development of affordable housing projects on private lands. We are also working on a single-window clearance system in states to enhance this.” Here’s a performance overview of CLSS under PMAY: Subsidy disbursement: Rs 920 crore No. of households: Over 47,000 Total no. of states and UTs covered: 30 Number of PLIs that have signed MoU with NHB: 170 Number of sensitisation workshops: 17 - SERAPHINA D’SOUZA