Greater vision needed for greater developments

[JinsAugust]

The danger of public-sector landlordism in the context of political reluctance to charge economic rent and to effect coercive recovery of arrears is seen in the case of reconstructed old buildings in Kochi and the inner city dwelling units of Trivandrum. In the case of Kochi, the state agency undertook building repairs and reconstruction programme for 20,000 dilapidated rented buildings, funded by a cess on landlords and tenants and grants from the state government and Municipal Corporation.

The concerned agency acquired buildings that were dilapidated and beyond repairs, shifted the tenants to transit camps, and reconstructed the building for occupation by the original occupants. However, given the low rents paid for the tenements earlier, the state agency was not permitted to levy more than 0.5 rupee per sq ft though the economic rent was three times as much. This led to the increasing diversion of capital grants for maintenance. In Trivandrum, there was no such programme, and the state-owned housing units became dilapidated over time due to inadequate rental revenues. The approach was to relocate the tenants of dangerous structures to alternate premises and the beneficiaries opposed this because the sites allotted were far away from their place of work. Due to the mismanagement of the government built Apartments Kochi City witnessed a skewed housing development policy getting implemented without any lack of vision.

Till the reinstatement of the official government policy in the National Housing Policy document, rental housing for the public was generally relegated to the background in the seventies. Only a few states continued schemes for the construction of slum clearance tenements on a rental basis, even if it entailed high subsidies. Investments, however, continued to be made on staff rental housing schemes including schemes of housing the police personnel and other special functionaries. Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO), a government owned company for providing housing finance, provided loans to state agencies, public sector bodies, and autonomous institutions for enhancing rental housing. Apart from this, the thrust of housing agencies and housing finance institutions was on ownership housing.