Floods: Rs. 300-cr. sought from HUDCO for housing

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 2. The A.P.State Housing Finance Corporation has sought a Rs. 300-crore loan from HUDCO with interest subsidy to be borne by the Central Government to build three lakh houses in the flood-affected districts. The State Government has promised to make a budgetary allocation of at least Rs. 200 crores for repayment by the corporation apart from its funds.

Disclosing this at a press conference here on Saturday, Mr. B. Dattatreya, the Union Minister of State for Urban Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, said that the Centre was asked to chip in with the interest amount of Rs. 267 crores (over 15 years) so that the benefit could be passed on to the housing beneficiaries.

The proposal - which in all likelihood will be accepted - would be taken up in New Delhi, the Minister said. Explaining the Centre's response to the State Government plea for help to tackle the flood havoc, he said the banks had been instructed to loan up to Rs. 50,000 to people whose houses had damaged and Rs. 10,000 for petty vendors to tide over the crisis. However, the bankers must adopt a nursing method and not pressurise the beneficiaries, he said.

Those living in slum areas would be given assistance at a differential interest rate of 4 per cent and Rs. 15 crores had been released as first instalment, he said. Farmers would get their loans rescheduled and the Central Government had directed the banks to step up relief operations, he said.

Mr. Dattatreya said that the State-Level Bankers Committee meeting held here on Saturday discussed the issue of extending the educational qualification limit, subsidy amount (to release directly to the nodal banks instead to the State Government), creation of a district urban development authority and vesting the allocation powers of benefits under the rozgar yojanas with the Collectors.Earlier, addressing the meeting, Mr. Dattatreya said self-help groups in urban and semi-urban areas could be used as vehicles to generate self-employment.

Mr. B. Vasanthan, chairman and MD, Andhra Bank and president of SLBC, highlighted the performance of banks in meeting the targets of PMRY and in issuing 21 lakh Kisan Credit Cards to farmers last year.

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Section  : Southern States
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