Palakkad: The state government has resolved to avail of loan up to Rs 3,000 crore from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) for its Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment (LIFE) Mission, a comprehensive rehabilitation scheme for the homeless.
There are efforts to borrow an additional amount of Rs 1,000 crore from a consortium of banks as well, an official said.
The move comes after the development funds of the state government and the local self-government bodies proved insufficient to build houses for the remaining beneficiaries.
“We have had informal discussions with HUDCO authorities. The loan is expected to be sanctioned next month,” the official added.
The project, which envisages to make Kerala a state without zero homeless and landless people, is estimated to cost Rs 7,000 crore.
As local self-governing institutions have been directed to set aside 20 percent of their development funds for the LIFE Mission from 2018-19 fiscal onwards, they will be able to release an aggregate amount of Rs 650 lakh next year for the scheme.
The rest of the required amount will be mobilised through various funding agencies.
Though the government had announced a budgetary allocation of Rs 2,500 crore for the project last year, the amount could not be sanctioned due to paucity of funds.
A survey conducted as part of the project showed that out there are 3,14,000 landless and as many as 1,75,000 landowners are homeless.
Under Life Mission, beneficiaries owning land are given Rs 4 lakh for construction of houses, while those belonging to tribal communities receive Rs 7 lakh each.
Plots have been identified in seven districts for construction of apartments under LIFE mission’s housing complexes to accommodate landless families. The process of inviting tender has also been completed, officials said.
As per the survey, there are as many as 66,766 houses that were abandoned halfway through construction after being taken up under various state and centrally-sponsored schemes. Out of this around 12,000 houses are in tribal settlements.
Houses that were under various stages of construction as on November 1, 2017, will be included in the LIFE mission housing project. In some districts, construction of houses under the project has been launched in coordination with voluntary organisations and private agencies.
The CPM has also decided to cooperate with the LIFE Mission scheme by sponsoring 200 houses.