OVER 92,000 HOUSING CO-OPERATIVES IN INDIA

New Delhi, June 3:

The Central Government ( Centre) has told State Governments that whatever land they develop for housing, 30 per cent of it should be given to housing co-operatives at concessions.

The letter from Kumari Selja, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Poverty alleviation, comes at a time the country faces a shortage of 2.47 crore homes in urban areas.

The move is aimed largely to serve the middle class, which has been left to fend for itself with government agencies focusing on housing for the poor and private developers wooing the rich.

Kumari Selja - the Union Minister of State for Housing and Poverty Alleviation has called a meeting of State housing ministers on July 18, 2008 to discuss how to promote housing co-operatives.

The National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy, approved last year, sees an important role for the co-operatives, which provide dwellings to their members on a no-profit, no-loss basis.

There are more than 92,000 primary housing co-operatives in the country have a membership of 65 lakh, and the Housing Co-operatives have built about 25 lakh homes.

The National Co-operative Housing Federation of India is the apex body for Housing Co-operatives in India.

Dr. M. L. Khurana is the Managing Director of NCHF and is also the Secretary General of The International Cooperative Housing Foundation for Asia & the Pacific.