PLANTATION LABOUR HOUSING 17. The Plantation Labour Act, 1951, requires every employer of Plantation labour to provide and maintain for all workers and their families residing in plantations, necessary housing accommodation, at the rate of at least 8 per cent of the workers every year, until all such workers have been provided for. A number of planters, particularly the smaller ones, found it difficult to discharge this obligation due to inadequacy of financial resuorces Accordingly the plantation labour housing scheme was introduced in 1956 for assisting such planters as needed financial help. Under this scheme, loans are given to the extent of 80 per cent of the cost of construction of the dwelling, excluding the cost of land and its development, subject to a maximum of Rs. 2400 per house in North India and Rs.1920 per house in South India. The planters are required to contribute the balance of 20 per cent from their own resources.
18. By the end of the Second Plan only 700 houses costing Rs. 14 lakhs had been sanctioned and 300 houses completed. The main difficulty in the way of the scheme has been the inability of the planters to furnish adequate security for the loan. The scheme requires the planters to mortgage to the State Governments land and houses built on it as security for the loan. The planters are not in a position to comply because their land and other properties are usually mortgaged with banks as security for the loans advanced to them for the normal working expenses of the plantations.
19. To make it easier for planters to avail of the loans, some State Governments have relaxed the security conditions. A 'Pool Guarantee Fund' is also proposed to be set up with an additional. 1/2 per cent interest charged on loans to the planters and the interest earned thereon from year to year. This Fund will serve as collateral security for the grant of loans and the losses,if any, in excess of the assets in the Fund will be shared equally by the Central Government, the State Government and the Commodity Board concerned.
MIDDLE INCOME GROUP HOUSING 20. A scheme for providing loans to middle income groups was introduced in February, 1959, with funds provided by the Life Insurance Corporation and is meant for persons whose income is between Rs. 6000 to Rs. 12,000 per annum. Loans to the extent of 80 per cent of the cost of the house subject to a maximum of Rs. 16,000 (Rs. 20,000 in the case of those who do not already possess a plot of land) are provided under the scheme. The loans are advanced to individual borrowers through the State Governments at the rate of 5 1/2 per cent per annum. By the end of the Second Plan a sum of Rs. 10.5 crores was disbursed to State Governments and Union Territories. Loans were sanctioned to 3600 applicants and about 500 houses were constructed. Progress was comparatively small in the initial stages as this was a new scheme for which rules for the grant of loans had to be drawn up and other arrangements made. The Third Plan allocations do not provide finance for this scheme except in the Union Territories, but it is likely that from funds provided by the Life Insurance Corporation about Rs. 20 crores might become available for the middle income group housing scheme and for the rental housing scheme for State Government employees mentioned below.
RENTAL HOUSING FOR STATE GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES 21. The object of the rental housing scheme for State Government employees is to assist State Governments in providing housing accom- modation to their low paid employees. Under the scheme, which was introduced in February
HOUSING AND URBAN AND RURAL PLANNING 363
1959 the Life Insurance Corporation grants loans carrying an interest of 5 per cent per annum to State Governments, and the loans are repayable over a period of 20 years. A sum of about Rs. 7 crores was given to State Governments under the scheme during the Second Five Year Plan, and. 2500 houses were sanctioned and 735 were completed.
SLUM CLEARANCE AND IMPROVEMENT 22. The Third Plan provides for a programme of about Rs. 29 crores for slum clearance and improvement. A scheme for giving financial assistance to State Governments and local bodies to enable them to clear some of the worst slums in big cities was initiated during the Second Plan. By the end of the Second Plan 208 projects costing about Rs. 19 crores and involving re-housing of 58,200 families living in slum conditions were taken up in different towns and cities. About 18,000 units have been already completed. For such of the families as cannot afford to pay even the subsidised rent of a pucca tenement, the scheme provides for skeletal housing and open developed plots with a separate washing platform and latrine for each family, leaving it to the slum. dwellers to build huts of a prescribed pattern themselves on a self-help basis in accordance with the technical directions of the State Government.
23. Some of the difficulties which came in the way of implementation of the slum clearance and improvement programme were the lengthy and time-consuming procedures of acquisition of slum areas, non-availability and high costs of alternative sites near existing places of work, inability of the slum dwellers to pay even the subsidised rent and their reluctance to move from the areas selected for clearance. Some States like Mysore, Madras, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Punjab, West Bengal and Delhi Administration have enacted legislation for speedier acquisition of slum areas and for scaling down the rate of compensation. Similar legislation is also needed elsewhere. The scheme was reviewed by the Advisory Committee on Slum Clearance and by a Study Team set up by the Committee on Plan Projects. These Committees recommended that while long-term plans were required, it was even more essential to think of short-term measures to relieve acute distress in the slum areas and, as an immediate measure, minimum amenities like sanitary latrines, proper drainage, uncontaminated water supply, moderately good approach roads, paved streets, and proper lighting should be provided. Following consideration of the reports of these two committees the scope of the slum clearance programme was extended to include slum imporvement. Larger resources were also provided as a matter of immediate priority for dealing with slum problems in six major cities, namely, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Delhi. Kanpur and Ahmedabad. In these cities, the total subsidy for slum clearance was raised from 50 per cent to 62 1/2 per cent and the Central Government's share in it from 25 per cent to 37 1/2 per cent
24. The maximum effort under this scheme should continue to be concentrated on the six cities mentioned above. However, it is propo- sed that in the Third Plan, in principle, slum clearance and improvement work could be taken up wherever State Governments consider that the slum problem exists in acute form. In view of limitations of resources, it is considered that ordinarily towns and cities with a population of 100,000 or more should receive priority. It is suggested that State Governments may arrange for surveys of slum areas, classifying them in two categories-areas which may have to be cleared and re-developed completely, and those which can be made habitable through the improvement of environmental conditions. If the owners of slum properties falling within the second category fail to carry out the improvements, these should be carried out through local bodies and the cost recovered from the owners; where necessary, the properties could be acquired or requisitioned. Wherever improvements are carried out by local bodies in slum areas on public lands or requisitioned lands, it may be necesary to give them grants for providing essential services. The cooperation of voluntary organisations and social workers should be fully enlisted in carrying out the programme of slum clearance and improvement.
25. While steps are being taken to clear or improve the existing slums, it is equally important that new-slums should not be allowed to grow up. This is by no means an easy object to achieve. Besides preparing and strictly implementing master plans for all growing towns and cities, it will be essential to enforce municipal bye-laws and building regulations, and at the same time, to expand housing facilities for low income groups and for economically weaker sections. As transitional measures, night shelters and dormitory accommodation for pavement dwellers and non-family workers have considerable urgency. Similarly, the housing of sweepers and scavengers must receive special attention. In selecting slum areas for clearance and improvement high priority should be given to areas predominantly inhabited by sweepers and scavengers.
URBAN PLANNING AND LAND POLICY 26. Urbanisation is an important aspect of the process of economic and social development and is closely connected with many other problems such as migration from villages to towns, levels of living in rural and urban areas, relative costs of providing economic and social services in towns of varying size, provision of housing for different sections of the population, provision of facilities like water supply, sanitation, transport and power, pattern of economic development, location and dispersal of industries, civic admi- nistration, fiscal policies, and the planning of land use. These aspects are of special importance in urban areas which are developing rapidly. The number of cities with a population of 100,000 or more has increased from 75 in 1951 to 115 in 1961, and their population now forms about
364 THIRD FIVE YEAR PLAN
43 per cent of the total urban population. Of the aspects mentioned above, in the long run, the most decisive are the pattern of economic development and the general approach to industrial location. The broad objective must be to secure balanced development between large, mediumsized and small industries, and between rural and urban areas. While this is by no means easy to realise, the main ingredients of developmental policy are the following:
(i) As far as possible, new industries should be established away from large and congested cities.
(ii) In the planning Of large industries, the concept of region should be adopted. In each case, planning should extend beyond the immediate environs to a larger area for whose development the new industry would serve as a major focal point.
(iii) In community development projects or other areas within a district the rural and urban components of development should be knit into a composite plan based in each case on schemes for strengthening economic inter-dependence between towns and the surrounding rural areas.
(iv) Within each rural area the effort should be to secure a diversified occupational pattern in place of the present extreme dependence on agriculture.
In considering the nature of the urban problem to be phased over the next decade, it is necessary both to deal with the situation which exists now and to ensure action along the right lines for the future.
27. Costs of urban development.-Much of the deterioration which occurs in living conditions in rapidly growing urban areas is due to the high costs of urban development, in particular, the costs of providing housing, water supply, drainage, transport and other services. The situation is further accentuated by the existence of unemployment, overcrowding and the growth of slums and the fact that a significant proportion of the population in many cities is without shelter. The problems to be faced are formidable in size and complexity, and solutions for them can be found only if their nature is fully appreciated not only by the State Governments, but also by municipal administrations and by the public generally and if an increasing amount of community effort and citizenship participation can be called forth within each urban area. There are certain minimum directions in which action should be taken during the Third Plan so that, for the future. at any rate, a correct course is set.These are :
(i) control of urban land values through public acquisition of land and appropriate fiscal policies;
(ii) physical planning of the use of land and the preparation of master plans;
(iii) defining tolerable minimum standards for housing and other services to be provided for towns according to their requirments and also prescribing maximum standards to the extent necessary; and
(iv) strengthening of municipal administrations for undertaking new development responsibilities.
28. Control of urban land values.-The most important element in raising housing and other costs and in restricting the scale on which improvements can be undertaken in the interests of low income groups is high land prices. Apart from normal increases, a major factor in raising land prices is speculation. In some towns, there are powerful factors like the setting up of new industries and the establishment of new public and other offices which stimulate speculative activity. However, since the rapid economic development of the country as a whole is under way and exerts its influence in all directions, elements of rising land values are present in larger or smaller degree in almost every urban area. In several urban areas, there is need for drastic measures, legislative and others, for freezing land values and also for undertaking large scale public acquisition of land. According to the nature of the situation the need for adequate measures for taxation of urban land and property exists, without exception, in all, towns.
29. Specific measures for checking rise in land values can become effective if there is strict regulation of the uses of land, especially in and around metropolitan cities, large and growing cities and new industrial towns. It is for such towns that the preparation of master plans referred to later is of special importance. The following Are the principal steps to be taken for controlling land values:
(1) Issue of notifications for freezing land values with a view to early acquisition of land by public authorities.
(2) Acquisition and development of land by public authorities in accordance with the interim general plans is essential for preventing speculation. The land should be acquired in bulk, although, depending upon local circumstances, the programme of acquisition would have to be suitably phased. Acquisition proceedings should be speedy and legal procedures should be simplified as far as possible. it is important that development of the acquired lands should be expedited. The essential services have to be provided by public authorities. Besides development undertaken directly by them, under appropriate regulations, cooperative and private agencies should also be utilised
(3) Allotment of land on a lease-hold basis.As a rule, lands acquired by public authorities should be given out only on a lease-hold basis so that, besides
HOUSING AND URBAN AND RURAL PLANNING 365
the recurring income secured on account of the ground rent, a fair share in the increase in the value of land continues to accrue to the community.
(4) Betterment levies and taxation of agricul- tural lands put to non-agricultural users. These are growing sources of revenue for States and local bodies, but in several States the existing pro- visions are inadequate.
(5) Capital tax on transfer of free-hold lands.
(6) Taxation of vacant plots in developed areas with power to acquire if they are not built upon within specified periods.
(7) Setting a ceiling on the size of individual plots and limiting the number of plots which a single party may be permitted to acquire.
(8) Determination of appropriate norms of rent and regulation and control over rents,
These measures lie at the base of proposals for planned urbanisation and have therefore to be given concrete shape as a matter of high priority.
30. Preparation of master plans.-To secure orderly development of towns and cities, town planning is indispensable. The first step in this direction will be the preparation of interim general plans establishing the broad pattern of land use to which developments should conform. This should be followed by the preparation of detailed master plans for urban and regional development. Master plans should be drawn up in the first instance for metropolitan cities, State capitals, port towns, new industrial centres and other large and growng cities where, in the ordinary course, conditions are likely to deteriorate further. A tentative list* of such towns and cities has been drawn up for the Third Plan period. In redeveloping existing cities and building up new towns, it is of the utmost im- portance that the regional approach should be followed. This is necessary both for securing a proper balance between social and economic development and for achieving greater cultural unity and social integration in the life of developing urban communities. Greater attention to the environment and appreciation of the day to day needs of the people can go a long way to give to all citizen a sense of community in urban life.
31. The primary responsibility for the preparation of master plans lies with State Governments and the local administrations concerned. For the Third Plan, limited provision has been made at the Centre for assisting the State Governments in the preparation of master plans for these cities and towns. An essential preliminary is the enactment of suitable legislation on town and country planning. It is also necessary that State Governments establish Town Planning Organisations with adequate trained personnel. The Central Regional and Urban Planning Organisation can assist State Governments and organisations concerned with the establishment of new towns, in the preparation of master plans and informulating suitable urban and regional development policies.
32. Standards.-For the solution of the housing problem for the bulk of the population and for the elimination of slums and other evils, it is essential that certain minimum standards of residential and office accommodation and other services are set, keeping in view the requirements of the community as a whole and the limited resources available. It is also desirable that maximum standards should be prescribed. This will go some distance in making the investment on housing yield more socially desirable results. Luxury housing and waste of urban land should be prevented so that larger numbers of modest dwelling units can be constructed for the same investment. For achieving this objective, the principal methods are (a) adoption of fiscal measures including local taxation, aiming at discouraging diversion of funds for luxury housing, (b) advice on building designs, (c) modifications in existing building bye-laws of local bodies so as to facilitate construction of low cost housing in accordance with austere standards and specifications, (d) prefabrication of building components, and (e) greater use of locally available cheaper materials. The systematic study of standards and advice relating to them constitute important aspects of the work of the National Buildings Organisation.