Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY)

The Government of India has initiated the “Rajiv Awas Yojana” under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA). This scheme is a Central Sector Scheme that aims at promoting a slum-free India and would direct on according property rights to slum dwellers and the urban poor by the states and union territories. Let us look in detail about the Rajiv Awas Yojana in this article. To know about GST on Housing Societies

Objectives of the Scheme

The objectives of the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) are given below:

To cover all slums, notified or non-notified, provide with basic housing, civic infrastructure and social facilities to the intervened slums which creates affordable housing stock to prevent the growth of slums.
To improvise houses with facilities such as water supply, internal and approach roads, sewerage, drainage, street lighting and social infrastructure amenities in slums and low.
To enable reforms to address the causes which leads to the creation of slums.
Facilitating a supportive environment for expanding the institutional credit linkages for the urban poor.
To facilitate a supportive environment for enhancing the institutional credit linkages for the poor urban people.
Institutionalizing mechanisms for prevention of slums including the creation of affordable housing stock.
To augment the institutional and human resource capacities at the Municipal, City and State levels through the comprehensive capacity building and strengthening of resource networks.
To empower the community by ensuring their participation at every stage of decision making through strengthening and nurturing slum dwellers’ association/federations

To know more about Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) - Click here

Applicability of the Scheme

The scheme is suitable for all cities and Urban Agglomerations (UAs) of the country. Under the scheme, the selection for seeking assistance will be done by the states in consultation with the centre. The cities/UAs that are covered under the preparatory phase of the Rajiv Awas Yojana is automatically included under the implementation process phase of the scheme. The following criteria may further be followed for selection of cities and UAs:

The Cities/UAs with the large proportion of slum dwellers should be given preference under the scheme.
The district headquarters, cities of religious, cultural, heritage, historic and tourist importance to be given priority.
The Cities/UAs with the predominance of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), minority population or other vulnerable section of the society to be covered under the scheme.
While selecting cities, the States/UTs will require to analyse their own resource mobilization capacity and availability of the allocated funds under this scheme.
The scheme is applicable to all slums areas within a city, whether notified or non-notified (includes the identified and recognised), whether on the lands/property belonging to the Central Government or its undertakings, autonomous bodies that are created under the Act of Parliament, State Government or its undertakings, Urban Local Bodies (UBLs) or any other public agency and private sector. It is also applicable to the “urbanized villages” inside the planning area of the city, urban homeless and pavement dwellers.

Quantum and Nature of Financial Assistance

The pattern of funding under the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) is tabulated as follows:

Category	Type of City/Urban Agglomerations (UAs) as per the Census	Components	Contribution of			Beneficiaries
Category		Components	Centre	State	ULB	Beneficiaries
Category A	Cities/UAs having 5 lakhs population and above	Housing	50%	25%	0	25%
Category A	Cities/UAs having 5 lakhs population and above	Infrastructure	50%	25%	25%	0
Category B	Cities/UAs with the population less than 5 lakhs	Housing	75%	15%	0	10%
Category B	Cities/UAs with the population less than 5 lakhs	Infrastructure	75%	15%	10%	0
Category C	Cities/UAs that are in the NorthEastern Region and special category States (Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand)	Housing	80%	10%	0	10%
Category C		Infrastructure	80%	10%	10%	0

There will be an upper ceiling of 5 lakhs per Dwelling Unit (DU) for cities with population more than 5 lakhs. This ceiling would be at 4 lakhs per DU for the smaller cities with the population less than 5 lakhs. In North East Regions and special category States, the upper ceiling will be at 5 lakh per Dwelling Unit irrespective of the population of the city. The upper ceilings, as above, will also include the cost of basic civic infrastructure and social amenities. The cost of civic infrastructure and social amenities per DU must not exceed 25% of the total cost. The land cost will not be permitted for the Central Government funding under this scheme. The funds available under the MPLAD/MLALAD would be used as a substitute for the ULB share. The ULB share can be borne by the State/UT or vice versa. The beneficiary contribution is required for the sense of ownership among the beneficiaries and it is provided at the minimum of 10% in the case of SC/ST/OBC/single woman/PH/other weaker and vulnerable sections and 12% in the case of general category.

Activities Funded under the Scheme

Following are the activities which will also be funded by the Central Government, which is of 50% for the cities having the population more than 5 lakhs and 75% for the cities with the population less than 5 lakhs and 80% for the NER and special category States. Under this RAY scheme, an amount of Rs.480.14 lakhs has been issued to the Tamil Nadu state for undertaking the activities of slum clearance project. The unit cost or the financial norms for the below-listed activities will be determined by the CSMC.

Preparation of Slum Free City Plan of Action (SFCPoA) and various preparatory activities such as slum survey, data entry, GIS mapping of slums, MIS, GIS-MIS integration and engagement of consultants.
For the State level Technical Cells (SLTCs), the allocation of funds between the State and the Centre would be in the equal share except for the NER and special category states.
For City level Technical Cells (CLTCs) the sharing between State and Centre would be in the ratio 50:50 or 75:25, as the case may be, except for NE and special category States where it will be in the ratio 80:20.
For the City level Technical Cells (CLTCs), the funds' allocation between the state and centre would be in the equal share except for the NER and special category states.
Preparation of the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) both for the in-house or out-sourced.
The Third Party Inspection & Monitoring Agency (TPIMA) and Project Management charges
The procurement mechanisms as enforced by the States and ULBs will be followed for all the activities that are prescribed under the scheme.

There are some provisions for the institutional credit to the beneficiaries they are: Rajiv Rinn Yojana: This scheme will provide interest subsidy of 5% for the long tenure loans of 15 to 20 years, with an upper limit of INR 5 lakh for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS with an annual income up to INR 1 lakh) and the upper limit of INR 8 lakh for the lower-income groups (LIG with the annual income limit between INR 1 to 2 lakh). To know about Rajiv Rinn Yojana Credit Risk Guarantee Fund: This fund is operated by the National housing bank, guarantees lending institutions with a coverage of 85% for loans from INR 2 to 5 lakh and 90% in case of the loan amounts that are up to INR 2 lakh.

Release of Central Assistance

The indicative State-wise allocation will be performed based on the urban population, that is estimated slum population or other suitable criteria as would be decided by the Ministry. The leftover liabilities that are under JNNURM and RAY scheme preparatory phase will also be considered into account. The release of funds for the various activities that are leading to the preparation of SFCPoAs will be made city-wise through the States/UTs in 2 instalments. The first instalment will be released only after the approval of the proposal for these activities that are submitted by the cities through the States to CSMC. The second instalment would be released after the receipt of Utilization Certificate for at least 70% of the earlier central fund release by the cities through the State Governments. The state share, as applicable, will have to be released to the cities before claiming for the second instalment.

Implementation of the Scheme

The implementation of the Scheme is done by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation to States/UTs as per the recommendations of CSMC.

The central funds for the implementation of the project in the selected slums will be released in 3 instalments in the ratio 40:40:20.
The first instalment of 40% would be released to the States/UTs following the sanction of the DPRs by the CSMC.
The subsequent instalments will be released only after the utilisation of funds of 70% to the earlier central release along with the State/ULB matching share is
The last instalment of 20% is released on the full receipt of the State/ULB/ beneficiary share and implementation of the agreed reform agenda as per the MoA. The central share for the O&M fund will be released on the last instalment.

Note: The interest accrued on the unutilised funds at the disposal of States/UTs will be adjusted as per directions that are issued by the Expenditure Department, Ministry of Finance that revised from time to time.

Project Appraisal and Approval

States/UTs would submit the proposal for the selected slums and cities with the approval of SLSMC to the Central Government.
Appraisal Agencies appointed by the Ministry (BMTPC, HUDCO) would appraise the DPRs submitted. Appraisal agencies will submit their appraisal reports with their comments and recommendations to the RAY Mission Directorate
SFCPoAs prepared for selected cities will be submitted to RAY Mission Directorate. The Mission Directorate will appraise the SFCPoAs before placing it to CSMC for consideration and acceptance.
Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee will be the sanctioning authority for projects up to 100 crores.
Projects costing above 100 crores but less than 300 crores will be sanctioned with the approval of the Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, on the recommendation of CSMC.
Projects costing up to 500 crores will be sanctioned with the approval of the Minister for Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Finance Minister on the recommendation of CSMC.
All projects costing above 500 crore will be approved by the competent authorities as envisaged in the Ministry of Finance (Expenditure Department) as revised from time to time.

Monitoring of Projects

The web-based MIS developed by the ministry of urban housing and poverty alleviation under JNNURM will be used to monitor/track projects under the RAY. There will be a third party inspection and monitoring agency (TPIMA) at the central and state level. Further, the State/UT must also conduct social audits of the projects under the implementation. The IPoMS will have a pre-approval tracking mode for the online submission of the detailed project reports/statements, physical and record various sanctions and release orders. There will be provision for uploading images of on-site construction activities, integration of mobile numbers and email address to send stage-wise alerts to the stakeholders including sanction and release of funds to minimize idling of funds.