Kathmandu, April 22

The Ministry of Urban Development has decided to build 25,000 housing units for disadvantaged communities throughout the country in the next fiscal 2017/18 under the People’s Housing Programme.

A meeting of the Central Coordination Committee presided over by Minister for Urban Development Arjun Narasingha KC recently held in Singha Durbar took a decision to this effect. The programme will be implemented by Department of Urban Development and Building Construction as per the People’s Housing Programme Implementation Procedure, 2017.

A minute of the meeting published by the DoUDBC said, “Over 25,000 housing units will be constructed in 72 districts other than Kathmandu Valley in the fiscal 2017/18.” It aims to guarantee right to education, health, housing, employment, food and social security of people from disadvantaged and endangered communities.

The programme also strives to protect, uplift and develop such communities, Dalits listed in National Dalit Commission and disadvantaged Muslims. According to the procedure, this programme shall be implemented in places or settlements where at least 10 beneficiary families have been living on the basis of their identification.

However, this restriction shall not be applicable in the case of Dom and highly marginalised and endangered ethnic people sparsely settled in any part of the country. In cases other than those where people need to be relocated due to natural disasters and land requisition, housing programme shall be implemented in the previous place for the beneficiaries, read the procedure.

The beneficiary shall bear 10 per cent of total grant for housing construction with a toilet as part of cost participation which could be made through labour donation, cash or construction material. The housing unit constructed under grant assistance of the government should be earthquake-resilient.

According to the MoUD, the concerned division office of the DoUDBC or Programme Implementation Unit will provide amount to the beneficiaries through the construction committee for this purpose. Before releasing the amount via banking channel, the construction committee will enter into an agreement with the beneficiaries. The maximum cost for each housing unit will be no more than Rs 3,00,000. However, the amount to be provided to the beneficiary by the government may differ from place to place depending on the condition of the concerned people.