Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
Agency overview
Formed27 May 2004
Dissolved6 July 2017
JurisdictionGovernment of India
HeadquartersNew Delhi
Websitemhupa.gov.in

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation was a ministry of the Government of India responsible for urban poverty, housing, and employment programs. It involved in national policy decisions and coordinates with Indian central ministries, state governments, and central sponsor programs.

On 6 July 2017, the ministry was re-united with the Ministry of Urban Development to form the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.[1]

History

The ministry was first created in 1999 as the "Ministry of Urban Affairs and Poverty Alleviation" and existed alongside the Ministry of Urban Development. On 22 November 1999, the ministry was renamed as the "Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation" and was concerned for generating employment in urban areas. On 27 May 2000, the ministry was merged along with the Ministry of Urban Development and renamed as the "Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation".

Following the formation of the First Manmohan Singh ministry on 22 May 2004, the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation was re-bifurcated into the "Ministry of Urban Development" and the "Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation". The Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation was renamed as the "Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation" on 1 June 2006. The ministry was re-merged with the Ministry of Urban Development on 6 July 2017 to form the "Ministry of Urban Affairs.

Overview.

The Indian Constitution has allocated responsibility for housing and urban development to the state; and the 74th amendment to the Constitution delegates some responsibility to the local governments. The ministry was responsible for the national capital territory of Delhi and union territories. It also provided finances through federal institutions and allocates resources to the state governments. The ministry supported the country's external housing and urban development assistance programs.[2]

Divisions

The ministry had administrative control over the National Buildings Organisation (NBO) attached office and the Hindustan Prefab Limited (HPL) and Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) public sector undertakings. It was also responsible for the following statutory and autonomous bodies:

Sectors for improvement

For poverty alleviation programs to be successful, the following sectors should realise improvements: Income generation, health, shelter, education, environment and infrastructure. Environmental Improvement for Urban Slum, Urban Basic Service programs, Nehru Rozgar Yojana, Shelter and Infrastructural facilities, and Low Cost Sanitation Night Shelter are examples of schemes to meet these objectives.[3]

The Ministry had constituted a Committee on Streamlining Approval Procedures for Real Estate Projects (SAPREP)[4] under the Chairmanship of Dhanendra Kumar, former Chairman of Competition Commission of India. Amongst other things, the concept of single window clearance as advocated by this committee report draw parallels with government's effort towards improving ease of doing business in the country.[5]

National programs and legislation

The Government of India has launched various programs since its independence, such as some of the five-year plans, to alleviate poverty and address the widening income gap, both, amongst the upper and lower classes of society, and amongst the rural and urban parts of the country.[6] For instance, the "Eighth Plan policy guidelines envisages integrated approach to alleviation of urban poverty and servicing the urban poor with basic facilities so that their quality of life improves."[7]

As trends in the Gini coefficient reflect,[6] the income gaps were not as pronounced until the early 1980s, but the situation has been continually getting worse since. Misplaced priorities of the Indian Government and bad planning of subsidy programs is largely responsible for this. Hosting the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in 2010 that cost the exchequer an approximate 110 billion (US$1.4 billion), excluding the price of non-sports related infrastructure, is a case in point.[8]

While newly launched programs like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Food Security Act, Mid-day Meals and Bharat Nirman Yojana have demonstrated success in the initial stages, their performance over the long-run still remains to be seen. The shortsightedness of the Indian government often leads it to launch populist programs that may not necessarily work well. Low-hanging fruit like increasing worker's minimum wage can go a long way in achieving the goal of poverty alleviation, but are yet to be taken up in spite of reminders from leading economists.[9]

On 6 September 2012 by the Union Minister, Kumari Selja, introduced to the Street Vendors Act, 2014 in the Lok Sabha.[10][11]

Cabinet Ministers

  • Note: MoS, I/C Minister of State (Independent Charge)
No. Portrait Minister
(Birth-Death)
Term of office Political party Ministry Prime Minister
From To Period
Minister of Urban Affairs and Poverty Alleviation
1 Satyanarayan Jatiya
(born 1946)
MP for Ujjain
13 October
1999
22 November
1999
40 days Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee III Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Minister of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation
2 Jagmohan
(1927–2021)
MP for New Delhi
22 November
1999
26 November
1999
4 days Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee III Atal Bihari Vajpayee
3 Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa
(born 1936)
Rajya Sabha MP for Punjab
26 November
1999
27 May
2000
183 days Shiromani Akali Dal
Minister of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation
4 Selja Kumari
(born 1962)
MP for Ambala

(MoS, I/C)
23 May
2004
1 June
2006
2 years, 9 days Indian National Congress Manmohan I Manmohan Singh
Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
5 Selja Kumari
(born 1962)
MP for Ambala

(MoS, I/C until 22 May 2009)
1 June
2006
22 May
2009
2 years, 355 days Indian National Congress Manmohan I Manmohan Singh
28 May
2009
28 October
2012
3 years, 214 days Manmohan II
6 Ajay Maken
(born 1964)
MP for New Delhi
28 October
2012
16 June
2013
231 days
7 Girija Vyas
(born 1946)
MP for Chittorgarh
17 June
2013
26 May
2014
343 days
8 M. Venkaiah Naidu
(born 1949)
Rajya Sabha MP for Karnataka, till 2016
Rajya Sabha MP for Rajasthan, from 2016
26 May
2014
6 July
2017
3 years, 41 days Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi
Merged with Ministry of Urban Development to form the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

Ministers of State

No. Portrait Minister
(Birth-Death)
Term of office Political party Ministry Prime Minister
From To Period
1 Babul Supriyo
(born 1970)
MP for Asansol
9 November
2014
12 July
2016
1 year, 246 days Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi
2 Rao Inderjit Singh
(born 1951)
MP for Gurgaon
5 July
2016
6 July
2017
1 year, 1 day
Merged with Ministry of Urban Development to form the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

See also

References

  1. "MoHUA is the new name for urban development & housing ministry". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  2. The Ministry. Archived 14 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine The Ministry of Housing And Urban Poverty Alleviation. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  3. L. N. P. Mohanty, Swati Mohanty (2005). Slum in India: A Case Study of Bhubaneswar City. APH Publishing. pp. 76–77. ISBN 8176488925.
  4. "Single Window System for Clearance for Real Estate Projects Soon: Ajay Maken".
  5. "Giving Housing Sector a Boost". Archived from the original on 15 December 2021.
  6. 1 2 Kanbur, Ravi; Gajwani, Kiran; Zhang, Xiaobo (2007), "Patterns of spatial convergence and divergence in India and China", in Bourguignon, François; Pleskovic, Boris (eds.), Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics Regional 2007 beyond transition, Washington, D.C: World Bank, pp. 3–4 and 9–10, ISBN 9780821368435. Pdf version.
  7. L. N. P. Mohanty, Swati Mohanty (2005). Slum in India: A Case Study of Bhubaneswar City. APH Publishing. p. 75. ISBN 8176488925.
  8. Sengupta, Mitu. Corruption, Poverty and India's Commonwealth Games. Green Left Weekly. 7 August 2010. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
  9. Ashenfelter, Orley, and Stěpán Jurajda. Cross-country Comparisons of Wage Rates: The Big Mac Index. Archived 21 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine Diss. Princeton University and Charles University, 2001. Center De Recerca En Economia Internacional. October 2001. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
  10. "Bill in Lok Sabha to protect rights of street vendors". The Economic Times. 6 September 2012.
  11. "Govt introduces street vending bill in Lok Sabha". The Times of India. 7 September 2012. Archived from the original on 4 January 2013.

Further reading

  • India. Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation. Annual Report. Government of India, Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation.
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