Untitled - National Cooperative Housing Federation of India

Editorial Board :

Shri S.N. Sharma, MLA

Shri V.K. Pipersenia, IAS

Shri R.D. Nazeem, IAS

Adv. M. Ebrahimkutty

Shri Y. Gopal Reddy

Shri Premjit Lal

Dr. M.L. Khurana

No part of this bulletin shouldbe reproduced without priorpermission of the Editor.

Subscription :

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The facts stated, conclusionsreached and views expressed inindividual contributions are of thecontributors concerned and arenot necessarily endorsed byNCHF.

Editor :Dr. M.L. Khurana

Joint Editor :N.S. Mehara

Technical Support :S.P. Kumar

Vol. XXVII No. 3-4 September-October, 2014

NCHF BULLETIN6A/6, SIRI FORT INSTITUTIONAL AREA, AUGUST KRANTI MARG,

NEW DELHI - 110 049 PHONE : 2649 0535

CONTENTS

1. From Editor's Desk ..........2

2. Messages .........................3

3. Cooperatives for ImprovingLiving Conditions in Slums—Dr. M.L. Khurana ........11

4. Use of Bamboo in Housingand Building Construction—Dr. Shailesh Kr.Agrawal, S.K. Gupta &Dalip Kumar ...................19

5. Listening the Voices fromSlums—A.K. Jain .....................25

6. Affordable Housing-ATransition from Dream toReality—Dr. Patanjali Tripathy .29

7. Multi-State CooperativeSocieties Act, 2002-ACommentary ...................33

8. Principle of Mutuality withA Judicial Analysis andTaxation—CA. Sunil KumarRastogi............................38

9. Legal Column .................41

10. Snippets ..........................43

11. lans'k ........................... 49

12. vkokl lgdkfjrkvksa dslnL;ksa ds vf/dkj] drZO;vkSj nkf;Ro&Mk- ,e-,y- [qkjkuk ....... 51

Board of Directors NCHF

ChairmanShri S.N. Sharma, MLA

Vice-ChairmenShri B.S. Manhas

Shri S.T. Somashekar, MLA

DirectorsShri Premjit Lal

Shri V.K. Pipersenia, IAS

Shri Y. Gopal Reddy

Shri Sukhbir Singh Panwar

Shri Nileshbhai Solanki

Shri R.K. Pikale

Shri C.M. Singal

Shri R.D. Nazeem, IAS

Adv. M. Ebrahimkutty

Shri Gopal Bhargav

Shri Ravindra V. Gaigole

Shri B. Vasanthakumar

Shri H.S. Sidhu

Shri Y.S. Yadav

Shri M. Sakthivel Murugan, Ex-MLA

Shri Mudit Verma

Shri Tapendra Mohan Biswas

Shri Sharad Shrivastva

Shri Lalit Kumar

Dr. M.L. Khurana,Managing Director

2 NCHF BULLETIN

FROM EDITOR’S DESK

WORLD HABITAT DAY-2014

World Habitat Day 2014 will lend an ear to ‘Voices from Slums’. It will emphasize on recognizing lifein slums, give voices to slum dwellers for improving quality of living conditions in existing slums. Governments,NGOs, private sector, academic and other institutions are encouraged to place current and past slum dwellersas protagonists of World Habitat Day 2014 through the available communication platforms.

Census of India, 2011 has found total slum population of 6.5 crore people spread over 2613 towns. But,over 5 crore urban population living in newly emerged urban areas was not covered for slum identificationduring the Census. Although small slum clusters are now more prevalent compared to big sprawls of earliertimes, the Census authorities persisted with using the old 60-70 household definition. And, dwellings withroofs or walls of GI sheets were not counted as slum. According to a report in Times of India, in the CensusTowns of Damodarpur, Dumari and Majhaulia abutting Muzaffarpur town in Bihar, at least 10 to 20 percenthouses have thatch roof, and drains are open, says Abhash Kumar. "Land of these erstwhile villages hasbeen sold for middle class residents but most original residents live in slum like conditions," he added.

Slums, the world over, and 'poverty' are in nexus. Poverty is the main contributory factor leading towardsslums; it is a visual manifestation of human deprivations having high incidence among the lower incomesegments of urban settlements. The phenomenon of 'slums' has its origin from the vast segment of ruralpopulation migrating to the towns and cities remain to be disproportionate to the available urban infrastructure.On the contrary, have we ever thought, where does the society gets necessary manpower support to performthe ancillary, 'informal' yet very essential functions for our day to day lives? Yes, slums do have positivecontributions to make as well; besides providing low cost accommodation to poor migrants from rural hinterlandsthat enter towns and cities in search of greener pastures in terms of employment, income and infrastructurefacilities, they also provide necessary manpower support to the city for performing variety of informal functionsand significant cheap labour to industry.

The sheer magnitude of the shelter problems of the slum dwellers visibly becomes cumbersome for theGovernment to resolve, however a participatory effort through the mechanism of cooperatives can possiblybe the best solution. The members, not only benefit mankind by building houses and sharing the goodnessof group living, it also assist them administer their own cooperatives.

The Government of India has taken a number of initiatives for the development of infrastructure as wellas improvement of environment in urban settlements with a view to improving the quality of life of urban poor.The Government has been implementing programmes to tackle the problem of the Urban Poor & the Slumdwellers thereby ensuring provision of basic services to the urban poor and ensuring delivery of other existinguniversal services of the Government for education, health and social security. Understanding the relevanceof socio-economic development of the nation, the National Cooperative Housing Federation of India (NCHF),strategized to build-up multi-purpose urban cooperative of the slum dwellers and the urban poor and tookinitiative to organize one such cooperative namely “Chetna Multi-purpose Cooperative Housing Society” inFaridabad (Haryana).

There is no doubt that the living conditions in slums are improving. Many non-tenable areas in slumsare provided with services such as water, sanitation, drainage, waste disposal system; and the good newsis it’s on the way to betterment. Although it is a steep and long path to tread, but the consolation is that atleastthe revolution has begun.

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2014 3

MESSAGE

Over the past decade, efforts under the Millennium Development Goals have cut the proportionof people living in slums by more than half. Yet, over the same period, rapid urbanization, especiallyin the developing world, has seen overall slum populations rise. In some parts of sub-SaharanAfrica, as many as 70 per cent of urban dwellers live in slums and informal settlements.

Slums are often located on the least desirable and appropriate land, such as flood plains andsteep hillsides, and are inherently vulnerable to the increasingly severe weather events that climatechange is causing. Many of the people who inhabit slums were pushed to migrate by the lack ofopportunities in rural areas or their countries of origin. They regularly lack basic services such aswater, sanitation, electricity and street lighting. Crime is often endemic, with women and girlsparticularly at risk. Unemployment, under-employment and the cost of transport to distant placesof work add further hardship.

To achieve sustainable development and a life of dignity for all, we must address these issues. This year, World Habitat Day is devoted to giving a voice to slum dwellers. Often, people in theslums live in near-anonymity — no address, no census and no idea when their living conditions willimprove. By learning from their experiences, city planners and policy makers can enhance the well-being of a significant portion of the human family. Let us hear from people who live in slums whathas worked and what has not – and what we need to do.

On this World Habitat Day, I encourage governments, businesses, academic institutions andnon-governmental organizations to give slum dwellers a voice – and to listen to what they have tosay. We have the technology and the know-how to build economically, socially and environmentallysustainable cities based on local solutions. Ensuring that our towns and cities expand in a well-planned and managed way is not only necessary to meeting the housing needs of our growingurban population, it is also vital for combatting climate change, protecting the environment andsupporting sustainable development. Let us focus on a new urban agenda that leaves no-onebehind.

(BAN KI-MOON)

BAN KI-MOONSECRETARY-GENERAL

UNITED NATIONS

4 NCHF BULLETIN

DR. JOAN CLOSEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

UN-HABITAT

MESSAGEEvery year on the first Monday of October we reflect on the state of our human settlements and

what we want the cities of our future to look like.

This year, the United Nations has chosen to turn the spotlight on the people who live or have livedin informal settlements, listening to “Voices from Slums”.

The goal is to raise awareness of life conditions in some areas of the planet which are crowded,with inadequate housing, poor or no water and sanitation facilities and no security of tenure. There israrely any public space in these areas and no allocation for streets, meaning no public transport andno access for emergency services.

As part of the Millennium Development Goals, the world pledged to improve the lives of 100 millionslum dwellers by the year 2020. By 2010 we had achieved this by more than 2 fold. However, withgrowing urbanisation, the number of people being born in or moving into these areas is also increasingand the overall number of people living in slums continues to rise. Estimates claim that there are alreadyone billion people living in slums.

People in slums are also disproportionately affected by climate change, with houses often builtprecariously on slopes or unsuitable building space and with inadequate materials making them vulnerableto landslides, floods and earthquakes.

Great efforts are being made to improve many slums around the world and better the lives of thosethat live there. But slums are a manifestation of rapid unchecked urbanisation – a result of allowing ourcities to expand without design or regulation and with disregard to their citizens. While continuing toupgrade the slums we have, we urgently need to focus our efforts on robust urban planning and theprovision of safe, affordable housing that is appropriate and adequate for our citizens’ growing needs.

Through real stories it is possible to demonstrate to decision makers in the urban arena that slumupgrading programmes can achieve better life conditions for slum dwellers, and greater economic andsocial impacts.

In 2016, UN-Habitat will host the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable UrbanDevelopment, Habitat III, and this will set us on the path for a new urban agenda. But we cannot waituntil then to stop the spread of slums. Our urban citizens have the right to adequate housing and basicservices and we need to make sure that our cities and towns are planned appropriately to provide these.

Nearly one billion urban slum dwellers are counting on it. We should hear their voices.

(DR. JOAN CLOS)


MESSAGE

The World Habitat Day is celebrated across the Globe every year on first Monday of Octoberto focus on state of towns and cities as well as the basic right of adequate shelters for all. It givesus an opportunity to have a closer look at the basic needs of housing for all and other relatedproblems involved. It also reminds the World of its collective responsibility to ensure future of humanhabitat.

The theme of World Habitat Day–2014 is “Voices from Slums”. It would recognize the rightof slum dwellers; lend voices to them for suggestions to improve quality of living conditions inexisting slums. It provides an excellent platform to highlight key human-settlement issues of slumdwellers so that these poor and downtrodden people living in cities can be lifted out of poverty.

The urban world is witnessing larger migrations of people into towns and cities in quest for abetter life. With over half of the World’s population living in the cities, urban areas are the focus pointof the impact of rapid urbanization and globalization. Unplanned growth of the cities leads to chaoticdevelopment and ill-managed infrastructure. It calls for efficient regional urban planning by usingappropriate technologies. There is also need of effective public transportation, safe drinking water,solid waste management, sanitation, conservation of nature and energy, etc.

It is a pleasure to know that the National Cooperative Housing Federation of India (NCHF) hasbeen working consistently for providing affordable and planned housing, especially to the low incomefamilies of the society with all basic amenities, essential infrastructure support and environmentfriendly surroundings through the mechanism of housing cooperatives.

I congratulate NCHF for bringing-out a Special Issue of their monthly journal “NCHF Bulletin”on the occasion of the World Habitat Day.

(M. VENKAIAH NAIDU)

,e- osadS;k uk;MqM. VENKAIAH NAIDU

'kgjh fodkl]vkokl vkSj 'kgjh xjhch mi'keu ,oa

lalnh; dk;Z ea=khHkkjr ljdkj

fuekZ.k Hkou] ubZ fnYyh&110011MINISTER OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT,

HOUSING AND URBAN POVERTY ALLEVIATIONAND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS

GOVERNMENT OF INDIANIRMAN BHAWAN, NEW DELHI-110011

lR;eso t;rs

6 NCHF BULLETIN

vuhrk vfXugks=kh] vkbZ-,-,l-ANITA AGNIHOTRI, IAS

lfpoHkkjr ljdkj

vkokl vkSj 'kgjh xjhch mi'keu ea=kky;fuekZ.k Hkou] ubZ fnYyh&110011

SECRETARYGOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBANPOVERTY ALLEVIATION

NIRMAN BHAWAN, NEW DELHI-110011

MESSAGE

The World Habitat Day worldwide is celebrated to remind us of our collective responsibilitytowards the constructive future of human habitat. The theme of this year’s World Habitat Dayis “Voices from Slums”.

The challenges of 21st century primarily lie in urban areas. The fast pace of urbanizationhas resulted in huge growth of slums, urban crimes, sprawling development, inefficienttransportation, rising energy cost, scarcity of water, health problems, etc. The Census-2011shows that over 65 million people live in slums in India. The housing conditions of slums incities and towns are remorseful and there is dearth of even basic infrastructure. Urban populationgrowth and changing consumption patterns put enormous pressure on limited resources.Therefore, in order to face the major challenges of the 21st Century, the priority for theGovernments, urban local bodies should be to streamline the urban planning process with ameaningful involvement of communities and other stakeholders in the planning and sustainabledevelopment of urban areas. There is also urgent need for enhanced flow of credit to the poorand underprivileged sections of our society. Cities, which are the real engines of wealthcreation and innovation, through the collective efforts, can become devoid of slums.

I am glad that the National Cooperative Housing Federation of India (NCHF) is facilitatingenvironment friendly and planned development of housing with basic infrastructure through themedium of cooperatives. I also congratulate NCHF for dedicating the Special Issue of ‘NCHFBulletin’ to the theme of the World Habitat Day-2014.

I wish NCHF all success.

(ANITA AGNIHOTRI)

lR;eso t;rs


MESSAGE

The United Nations has designated the first Monday in October each year as ‘World HabitatDay’ for reflecting on the state of human settlement and the basic right to adequate shelter for alland to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of human habitat.

The theme of World Habitat Day-2014 is “Voices from Slums”, primary objective of which isto raise awareness of the living conditions in slums. It will facilitate the stakeholders to shareexperiences on slum up-gradating programmes among cities and urban areas across the world. Thesignificance of the theme can be judged as urban planning systems around the world have notchanged much over the years and as such often contribute to urban problems rather than tools forhuman and environment improvement. At present, over half of world’s population lives in cities andtowns, which are hubs of opportunity and dignity. Slums are entry points of the needy poor into citiesand towns. It is necessary that policy makers understand the power of the cities as a catalyst fornational development. An efficient urban planning model based on sustainable development is theneed of the hour to strengthen urban infrastructure and services so as to make our cities moreefficient and better places to ensure decent economic opportunities especially to the poor and theslum dwellers.

Housing cooperatives across the globe have proved their worth in providing well planned andqualitatively superior housing products through a cost-effective and efficient process of housingsupply. Cooperative housing complexes are not only planned developments with all basic amenitiesbut also provide various habitat related infrastructure support comprising local shopping centres,community centres, banks, parks, playground, schools, etc. thereby subscribing to the developmentof integrated human settlements which are the centres of communal harmony and co-existence.

It is a matter of pleasure and pride that the National Cooperative Housing Federation of India(NCHF) is bringing out a Special Issue of its in-house journal ‘NCHF Bulletin’ on the occasion ofWorld Habitat Day.

(S.N. SHARMA)

lR;ukjk;.k 'kekZS.N. SHARMA

vè;{kHkkjrh; jk"Vªh; lgdkjh vkokl la?k

ubZ fnYyh&110049CHAIRMAN

NATIONAL COOPERATIVEHOUSING FEDERATION OF INDIA

NEW DELHI-110049

8 NCHF BULLETIN

MESSAGE

The World Habitat Day this year will be celebrated globally on 6th October, 2014. The mainpurpose behind the celebration is to remind us of our collective responsibility towards the future ofhuman habitat. The theme “Voices from Slums” is so important to all of us on many counts. Theattempt is to raise awareness of living conditions in slums, draw attention of the decision makersthat slum up-gradation programmes can achieve better living conditions for slum dwellers andgreater social and economic impacts.

The fast pace of urbanization across the world in recent years has contributed to the growthof slums and urban poverty as migration continues unabated to the city centers in search of betterlife. It lends urgency to the need to address the problem of housing and urban basic infrastructureto improve the quality of life and environment sustainability in the ever growing cities particularly indeveloping countries. The cities and towns are central to economic growth, innovation and creativityas they contribute significantly to national gross domestic product. The need of the hour is tostrengthen the infrastructure of the existing cities and towns and create new smart cities with propersanitation, drinking water, affordable housing and other livelihood facilities which evolve along efficientpublic transport system and encourages energy efficient and pollution free technologies.

I am glad that housing cooperatives under the guidance of the National Cooperative HousingFederation of India (NCHF) are doing good job in providing affordable housing to the needy peopleespecially lower and middle income families with all elementary amenities supported by environmentfriendly and pleasant surroundings.

I am happy that NCHF is bringing out a special issue of “NCHF Bulletin” on the theme of theWorld Habitat Day.

I wish NCHF all success.

(K.B.S. SIDHU)

ds-ch-,l- fl¼w] vkbZ-,-,l-K.B.S. SIDHU, IAS

la;qDr lfpo (vkokl)Hkkjr ljdkj

vkokl vkSj 'kgjh xjhch mi'keu ea=kky;fuekZ.k Hkou] ubZ fnYyh&110011JOINT SECRETARY (HOUSING)

GOVERNMENT OF INDIAMINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN

POVERTY ALLEVIATIONNIRMAN BHAWAN, NEW DELHI-110011

lR;eso t;rs


MESSAGEThe first Monday in October each year has been designated as ‘World Habitat Day’ by the United

Nations for reflecting on the state of human settlement and the basic right to adequate shelter for all. It alsoaims to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the habitat of future generations.

This year, the World Habitat Day falls on 6th October, 2014 and the theme of which is ‘Voices fromSlums’. This year’s theme is very important as it emphasizes on recognizing life in slums, give voices to slumdwellers for improving the living conditions in existing slums. Simultaneously, Governments, NGOs, privatesector, academic and other institutions are encouraged to place current and past slum dwellers as protagonistsof World Habitat Day through the available communication platforms.

I have been associated with the Indian Cooperative Housing Movement for the last over four decades.I am an awardee of D. Lit. Degree on ‘National Development through Slum Cooperatives’ by a prestigiousIndian University. My D. Lit Thesis concludes and presents a workable strategy for slum improvementand urban poverty alleviation through cooperatives.

Poverty is the main contributory factor leading towards slums; it is a visual manifestation of humandeprivations having high incidence among the lower income segments of urban settlements. The phenomenonof 'slums' has its origin from the vast segment of rural population migrating to the towns and cities remainto be disproportionate to the available urban infrastructure. Slums do have positive contributions to make aswell; besides providing low cost accommodation to poor migrants from rural hinterlands that enter towns andcities in search of greener pastures in terms of employment, income and infrastructure facilities, they alsoprovide necessary manpower support to the city for performing variety of informal functions and significantcheap labour to industry. The need of the hour is to devise an appropriate model for urban planningespecially urban transport and traffic management, adequate infrastructure for health & sanitation, watersupply, waste management, etc. based on sustainable development with a meaningful participation of allstake holders.

The sheer magnitude of the shelter problems of the slum dwellers visibly becomes cumbersome for theGovernment to resolve, however a participatory effort through the mechanism of cooperatives can possiblybe the best solution. The members, not only benefit by building houses and sharing the goodness of groupliving, it also inculcate in them democratic values as they manage their cooperative estates on democraticprinciples.

It is a matter of pleasure and pride that the National Cooperative Housing Federation of India (NCHF)is bringing out a Special Issue of its in-house bilingual journal ‘NCHF Bulletin’ on the occasion of WorldHabitat Day-2014.

(DR. M.L. KHURANA)

MkWñ ,e-,y- [kqjkukDr. M.L. KHURANA

çca/ funs'kdHkkjrh; jk"Vªh; lgdkjh vkokl la?k

ubZ fnYyh&110049MANAGING DIRECTOR

NATIONAL COOPERATIVEHOUSING FEDERATION OF INDIA

NEW DELHI-110049

10 NCHF BULLETIN


COOPERATIVES FOR IMPROVING LIVINGCONDITIONS IN SLUMS

—Dr. M.L. Khurana*

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE AND SCALE OF SLUMPROBLEM

When human beings were able to produce morethan they consumed and had found ways of storing thesurplus to provide for a large number of people, livingaway from the field, they settled on such areas whichprovided good environment, climate and soil favourableto plant and animal life, an adequate water supply, readymaterials for providing shelter and easy access to otherpeople. Concentration of population grew at theintersections of trade routes, at harbours and at the mouthsof rivers with easy access to the sea. Athens, Rome waslocated near the sea. Mecca, Damascus and Samarkandwere island cities located on caravan routes. In India allbig cities were located near the banks of rivers, ports,etc. Varanasi is one of the ancient and famous citieslocated on the bank of river Ganges. The officials andpriests lived in the main hub whereas lower classes –craft persons, artisans and labourers lived around the cityrepublics. Gradually people from fields and smallsettlements started moving to city republics because oflack of farm work all time of the year and safety in cities.These city republics became powerful and tapped thesurpluses and other resources. In 1800 only 2% of worldpopulation lived in towns of more than 5000 inhabitants.No more than 45 cities had population over 100,000. The19th and 20th Century saw enormous growth of urbanpopulation and cities were not able to sustain the pressureof increased population and could not provide goodenvironment and basic services to new entrants as theywere unable to afford reasonable shelter within theirmeans. They were therefore forced to live in slums.

The word slum which first appeared in Veux’s FlashDictionary in 1812 was derived from slumber which meansa sleepy unknown back alley. Slum meant ‘wet mire’ whereworking class housing was built during British Industrialrevolution in order to be near the factories. These wereuncontrolled settlements and lacked basic services andwhere only the poor lived.

According to an Expert Group of the United Nations,a slum is an area that combines to various extents thefollowing characteristics namely; (i) inadequate access to

safe water, (ii) inadequate access to sanitation and otherinfrastructure; (iii) poor structural quality of housing;(iv) overcrowding and (v) insecure residential status.

In India almost all urban settlements face theunpleasant scenario of ‘Slums’. Often, this has remaineda vaguely defined phenomenon. Various institutions anddocuments have attempted to define ‘Slums’ largely as ameasure of deficiency of basic habitat services andamenities or the absence of livable environment consistingof adequate housing and infrastructure facilities.

The latest census defines a slum as “residential areaswhere dwellings are unfit for human habitation” becausethey are dilapidated, cramped, poorly ventilated, unclean,or “any combination of these factors which are detrimentalto the safety and health” and covers all 4,041 statutorytowns in India. Over a third of India’s slum dwellers livein unrecognised slums with some researched facts:

– By 2011, over 65 million people live in slums, upfrom 52 million in 2001, but slum populations havegrown slower than the average urban population overthe last decade.

– The average household living in a slum is no largerthan an average urban Indian household, with 4.7family members.

– The child sex ratio (0-6 years) of an average slumhousehold is 922 girls for every 1,000 boys,compared to 905 for urban India.

– Scheduled Castes (SCs) are over-represented inslums, with 1 out of every five slums residentsbelonging to SC, compared to just over one out of10 for urban India as a whole. The proportion ofSCs living in slums has risen over the last decade.

– Scheduled Castes in slums have far better sex ratiosthan other urban communities.

– The literacy rate in slums is now up to 77.7% butstill lags behind the urban average.

– Both men and women living in slums participate ata higher rate in the workforce than the urban average,even though fewer have employment through theyear.

According to recent estimates, Maharashtra, Uttar* Managing Director, National Cooperative Housing Federation ofIndia, New Delhi

12 NCHF BULLETIN

Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh will behaving largest share of slum population in India by 2017.These States are already home to a large number ofslum populations which mostly lives in and around urbanareas. By 2017, Maharashtra will be home to more than20 million of slum population in India followed by UttarPradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. It isestimated that by 2017, India’s total slum population willbe 104 million. On the present trends, 2 billion peoplewould be living in slums by 2030. This is because ofenormous migration from rural to urban areas, new familyformation and increase of population.

For the latest round, the census designated slumsin three different ways - notified, recognised and identified.While the first two are designated as slums by someofficial authority, identified slums do not have legal statusas a slum, but must consist of at least 60-70 tenementswith at least 300 people.

The data shows that of the three types, identifiedslums have the largest sub-set of slum population,indicating that over a third of India’s official slum populationdoes not have official status as a slum, or access to legalprotection and municipal services.

With over 11 million of its residents in slums,Maharashtra has the highest slum population; 4.6 millionof them in ‘identified’ slums. Andhra Pradesh follows withover 10 million in slums, and West Bengal and UttarPradesh have over 6 million slum residents each. Over 1million of Delhi’s 1.7 million slum residents live in ‘identified’slums.

With the new method, several States such asHaryana, Delhi, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhandhave identified more slum dwellers in such areas than inthe notified or recognized slums. In fact, the number oftowns having slums has gone up from 1,743 in 2001 to2,613 in 2011, out of a total of 4,041 towns in India.

The proportion of slum population to urban populationhas fallen slightly with the slum population growing at aslower pace than urban areas as a whole. There alsoisn’t any difference in the household size of urban areasand slums any more, about 4.7, with slums showing ahigher reduction in family size.

According to a study conducted by ParticipatoryResearch in Asia and Indicus Analytics, people living inurban slums contribute over 7% to the GDP of the nation.

Our country, therefore, can ill-afford to neglect thewelfare of such large number of its citizens. Adequatelycatering to their socio-economic development needsshould engage our immediate attention in larger interestof national development and national integration.

LIVING CONDITIONS IN SLUMS

Almost all the houses in slums are in bad, andsometimes dilapidated, conditions. The houses are usuallyinadequately ventilated. The designs are such as to affordbare shelter, leading to acute congestion. In squattersettlements, houses are constructed using materials likemud, un-burnt bricks, tin-sheets, asbestos sheets, bamboo,gunny bags, plastic sheets etc. and are usually single-room units with inadequate space standards.

Private toilets do not exist in a majority of slum areasand even common toilets are available only in a few.Where there are no toilets, people defecate in the openwhich, besides being an environmental nuisance, poseshardships for, especially women. Community latrines, evenwhere available generally remain filthy and insanitary andvirtually a menace to the areas in which they exist.

Most of the houses in slum areas do not havededicated water supply. In some slum areas, public tapsdo exist but the number of persons using each such tapis generally very high. Many slums, especially in theoutskirts of the cities, have open wells as their only sourceof water for drinking, bathing and cleaning. These wellsare generally insanitary. No attention is paid to themaintenance of wells, or even of public taps. Aconsiderable number of slum dwellers have to fetch waterfrom outside the slum areas.

The drainage system in almost all the slums is verypoor. With the exception of pucca buildings in old city

States with the Highest Population in Non-notified/Non-recognised slums

(Figures in lakhs)

States Total Notified Recog- IdentifiedSlum Slums nised Slums

Population Slums

Maharashtra 118.5 37.1 34.9 46.5

West Bengal 64.2 0.5 37 26.7

Rajasthan 20.7 0 0 20.7

Gujarat 16.8 0 0 16.8

Haryana 16.6 0.1 0 16.5

Tamil Nadu 58 25.4 19.8 12.8

Madhya Pradesh 56.9 19.0 25.3 12.6

Bihar 12.4 0 0 12.4

NCT Delhi 17.9 7.4 0 10.5

Uttar Pradesh 16.4 5.6 46.8 10.0

India 655 225.4 201.3 228.3


areas, slum settlements generally do not have anydrainage. Furthermore, a majority of unauthorized coloniesand squatter settlements are located on low-lying lands.As a result, sewage water cannot flow away. The situationbecomes particularly worse during the rainy season whenstorm water finds its way into these low lying settlementsand get mixed-up with the sewage water, making extremelyunhygienic environment.

Roads and lanes are narrow and often unpaved.Puddles and slush are common-place after every rainshower. The facility of roads and street lights is generallyinadequate. This adversely affects the safety and securityof residents and is generally believed to be largelyresponsible for high rates of night-time crimes.

There is a complex relationship between environmentand health. A number of studies have shown that theunhygienic slum environments make slum dwellers moresusceptible to certain types of diseases like respiratorydiseases, gastro-intestinal disorders, skin diseases,malarial fever, tuberculosis, etc. Unfortunately, theeconomic circumstances of the slum dwellers are such asthey do not allow them to improve their living conditions.A majority of the slum dwellers are employed in theunorganized or informal sector. A large proportion of themworks on a daily wage basis and, therefore, has little orno job security. A significant proportion is employed inconstruction work. Due to low income, their standard ofliving is also low and they are left with little surplus incomefor housing after meeting their families’ basic needs offood and clothing.

In brief we may say that slum dwellers are facedwith insecurity of tenure, lack of basic services, especiallywater and sanitation, unsafe building structure, over-crowding, limited access to credit and formal job markets.Normally slums exist on polluted land. They suffer fromwater-borne diseases. It is also believed that slums areplaces of high level of crimes. This is not universally true.The poverty is the main reason for slums. At the sametime slums also provide low cost accommodation to poormigrants and necessary support to city.

ORGANISE SLUM DWELLERS AND URBAN POORINTO MULTI-PURPOSE URBAN COOPERATIVES &GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION – A SUGGESTEDSTRATEGY

Government alone cannot effectively resolve themulti-faceted problems of the urban poor, rather people’sparticipation is absolutely necessary in all the urbanpoverty alleviation programmes so that the developmentinputs reaches specifically to the targeted beneficiary.Therefore, the new strategy should be to organize multi-purpose urban cooperatives among the slum dwellers

and urban poor in each of the slum cluster in varioustowns and cities. The mechanism of cooperative can bea solution because individuals come together to achievetheir objectives as a collective group what they cannotachieve as individuals alone. Cooperatives can:

– Motivate people for shelter, channelize petty savings,organize and manage on democratic basis theircooperative societies and also supervise theconstruction of houses and post-constructionmaintenance of housing assets.

– Undertake various educational, cultural, economicand social activities.

– Help in income up-gradation through household microenterprises

– Improve affordability towards housing and relatedservices including capability for repayment of housingcooperatives.

– Motivate people to maintain the assets created (whichlocal authorities can ill-afford as a recurringresponsibility).

– Provide fresh migrants the much needed emotionalsecurity in the unfamiliar urban environment.

SUGGESTED ACTION PLAN AND BROADGUIDELINES

– Organize multi-purpose urban cooperatives amongthe urban poor in each slum settlement

– Land owning agencies should allot land for houseconstruction to multi-purpose urban cooperativesocieties on leasehold basis at concessional raterecoverable on long term basis.

– Members would derive occupancy and ownershipright which would be heritable and can be mortgagedfor raising housing loans.

– Members shall be prohibited from selling their shareof land or transferring it in any manner.

– When a member quits the membership of thecooperative, the land shall revert to the cooperativeitself thus preventing alienation of land.

– In order to safeguard the interests of women whoare the most vulnerable among the urban poor,membership will preferably be for women.

– Besides housing, multi-purpose urban cooperativesmay undertake other activities like home-basedindustries, health and social services, rental housing,library, child care, care for elderly, distribution ofbuilding materials, publicity for the use of innovativetechnologies, etc.

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– They can also perform thrift and credit functionsamong the members thereby strengthening microcredit system for urban poor.

– These additional activities will generate employmentopportunities and give additional income for themembers on the one hand and reduce housing costson the other.

The Government of India has taken a number ofinitiatives for the development of infrastructure as well asimprovement of environment in urban settlements with aview to improving the quality of life of urban poor. In thiscontext, the Ministry of Housing and Urban PovertyAlleviation are monitoring the implementation of a fewCentrally Sponsored Schemes for which, besides policyguidelines, State Governments and their developmentagencies are given financial support in the form of grantsand loans.

The Government provides assistance to States/UnionTerritories (UTs) for development of urban slums throughprovision of physical amenities and basic services underthe Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP)/IntegratedHousing & Slum Development Programme (IHSDP)components of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban RenewalMission (JNNURM). The benefits of these programmesflow equitably to members of the minority communitiesand to cities/slums, predominantly inhabited by minoritycommunities. In all, 15% of the Central allocation is to beearmarked for the Minority Communities. States/UTs arerequired to give priority to the cities/slums, predominantlyinhabited by minority communities (i.e. where minoritypopulation is 25% or more), while submitting DetailedProject Reports (DPRs) for the assistance under theBSUP)/IHSDP.

Both under BSUP and IHSDP emphasis is given forintegrated development of slums through projects forproviding shelter, basic services and other related civicamenities with a view to provide utilities to the urbanpoor. Accordingly, the approved projects include physicalamenities and related infrastructure such as water supply,sewerage, storm water drain, roads, multi-purposecommunity centres, parks etc.

More recently, in pursuance of the Government’svision of creating a Slum-free India, ‘Rajiv Awas Yojana’(RAY) has been launched. The scheme envisagesproviding Central support to States that are willing toassign property rights to slum dwellers for provision ofdecent shelter and basic civic and social services forslum redevelopment, undertake reservation of land/FloorArea Ratio (FAR)/dwelling units for EconomicallyWeaker Sections (EWS)/Low Income Groups (LIG),earmark 25 per cent of municipal budget for basicservices to the urban poor/slum-dwellers and bring in

legislative amendments and policy changes to redressland and affordable housing shortages for the urbanpoor. Under the RAY, 33 Pilot projects from 13 States(28 Cities) have been approved up to 31st December,2012.

As a means of Credit Enablement of the Urban Poor,the Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor(ISHUP), dovetailed with RAY–provides interest subsidyof 5% on loans upto Rs.1 lakh, so as to reduce the costof the loan taken to build/purchase house.

The Affordable Housing in Partnership Scheme(AHPS), which is intended to encourage public privatepartnerships for the creation of affordable housing stockis dovetailed with RAY. Under this scheme CentralAssistance will be limited to least of following :

– Rs. 50,000 per rental unit or Dwelling Unit for alldwelling units taking EWS, LIG and MIG unitstogether which are proposed in the project, and

– 25% of the cost of all civic services (external andinternal) proposed in the project.

The scheme extends to all cities covered under RAYand rental housing units as well as dormitories for newmigrants are also permissible under the scheme. Underthe AHPS, 11 projects from 2 States have been approvedso far.

The Government of India has also approved theestablishment of a Credit Risk Guarantee Fund (CRGF)Trust with an initial corpus of Rs.1000 crores. This schemeproposes to guarantee the lending agencies for loans givento EWS/LIG persons up to Rs.5 lakh without any thirdparty guarantee or collateral security. The NationalHousing Bank is the identified agency for operationalisingCRGF. The Trust has been registered. The CRGF Schemehas been notified in the Gazette and subsequentlylaunched on 31st October, 2012.

Urban slums, particularly in the big cities of ourcountry, are the picture of human misery anddegradation. Urbanization is an inevitable phenomenonof modernization and economic development. Slumsgrow as a result of structural inequities in thedevelopment of the urban sector. Due to the high priceof land and housing and low purchasing power, theurban poor are forced to join the existing slums forcheap shelter or to occupy any vacant land/areaswherever available in the city. With a view to payingparticular attention to the needs of slum dwellers theprogramme titled Basti Sudhar monitors number ofurban poor families assisted under the seven pointcharter viz. land tenure, housing at affordable cost,water, sanitation, health, education and social security.


ROLE OF NGOs

The emerging scenario of the complex socio-economic problems of slum dwellers and the somewhatisolated, piece-meal action plans and programmes drawnup so far by the Governments amply has not effectivelyhit the target. Thus while on the one hand the slumpopulation is growing and the slum conditions areworsening, on the other hand, the slum programmesusually remain only partly accomplished.

What is needed is Peoples’ Participation, both inpolicy formulation and implementation of programmes. Inthis regard, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) withtheir local knowledge, skill and practical experience canplay very effective role in programmes for improving livingand economic conditions of slum dwellers. Various FiveYear Plan documents have explicitly recognized theimportance of involving NGOs in the planning andimplementation of anti-poverty and minimum needsprogramme, which includes environmental improvementof slum areas only.

ROLE OF COOPERATIVES IN SLUM IMPROVEMENT

The essence of cooperation is that individuals cometogether to achieve as a collective what they cannotachieve as individuals. Inasmuch as the means, in general,and access to land, finance and other resources forhousing, in particular are even more limited in the case ofslum dwellers than in other sections of the society, housingcooperatives have a substantial potential role in theattainment of the shelter goals of slum dwellers.

Another major advantage of slum cooperatives isthat they provide fresh migrants much needed emotionalsecurity in the unfamiliar urban environment. In furtheranceof their aim of fostering a new community life for slumdwellers, slum cooperatives can undertake variouseducational, cultural and social activities.

Slum cooperatives can also help in income up-gradation endeavours if, for instance, cooperativehousehold industries in slum areas are encouraged witha view to raising incomes and, thereby affordability towardshousing and related services, including capability forrepayment.

An important aspect of slum improvement and up-gradation is to motivate the public to maintain the assetscreated. Cooperatives of slum dwellers have a majoradvantage in that as they can secure the much neededmaintenance of assets created which local authorities canill-afford as a responsibility. Cooperatives not only providea forum for community action in respect of maintenanceinitiatives, but they also help in educating slum dwellers

on the need for maintenance and thereby secure, in thelong term, individual responsibility and participation.

Thus cooperatives for housing, cooperatives for watersupply and sanitation, cooperatives for schools,cooperatives for health and environment etc. or a multi-purpose cooperative in each slum settlement caneffectively ensure the delivery of various developmentinputs directly and specifically to the targeted slumpopulation in order to achieve the desired results.

The importance of cooperatives and cooperative likeorganizations has been acknowledged by the UnitedNations Human Settlements Programme (HABITAT). Theparagraph 56 of HABITAT Agenda recognizescooperatives as stake-holders at local level thatcompliment and supplement the governmental efforts inmeeting the housing needs of the people.

The Agenda makes specific recommendations onhousing cooperatives. It particularly focuses oncooperatives’ role in mobilizing financial resources forproviding housing for the poor. The paragraph 82 of theAgenda states as under:

To create new housing finance mechanism, asnecessary, Governments at appropriate levels should:

(a) Harness the potential of non-traditional financialarrangements by encouraging communities to formhousing and multi-purpose community developmentcooperatives, specially for the provision of low-costhousing;

(b) Review and strengthen the legal and regulatoryframe-work and institutional base for mobilizing non-traditional lenders;

(c) Encourage, in particular, by removing legal andadministrative obstacles, the expansion of savingsand credit cooperatives, credit unions, cooperativebanks, cooperative insurance enterprises and othernon-bank financial institutions and establish savingsmechanisms in the informal sector, particularly forwomen;

(d) Support partnerships between such cooperativeinstitutions and public and other financing institutionsas an effective means of mobilizing local capital andapplying it to local entrepreneurial and communityactivity for housing and infrastructure development;

(e) Facilitate the efforts of trade unions, farmers,women’s and consumer organizations, organizationsof people with disabilities and other associations ofpopulations concerned to set-up their owncooperatively organized or local financial institutionsand mechanisms;

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(f) Promote the exchange of information on innovationsin housing finance;

(g) Support Non-Government Organizations and theircapacity to foster the development, whereappropriate, of small savings cooperatives.

The housing cooperatives across the globe havebeen contributing significantly towards meeting the shelterrequirements of needy people. They are also instrumentalin removing social evils. For instance the CooperativeHousing Foundation of Canada has dealt successfully withthe problem of domestic violence by sensitizing theirmembers and soliciting cooperation of Municipal Authoritiesand Women Organizations. German Housing Cooperativehas organized low income families of 15 countries torestore 400 apartments for them. Turkey presents a uniquecooperative example of low income people through a masshousing project undertaken by Kent Koop (Union ofBatikent Housing Construction Cooperatives) incollaboration with Municipal Authority of Ankara andWorkers’ Unions. Now 43000 housing units of this projectprovide shelter for 190,000 families. In Africa too, housingcooperatives have been playing important role in solvingthe housing problem.

The Indian cooperative housing movement is wellspread across the country and has developed over theyears into a noble and popular movement and in a positionto serve the poorest of the poor living in the slums. Todaythere are over 100,000 primary housing cooperatives witha membership of over 75 lakhs in the country. Thesehousing cooperatives have constructed/financed about 2.5million housing units in various parts of the country. Sofar, 75% of housing units have gone to economicallyweaker sections and low income families.

GLOBALIZATION AND SLUMS

In the new era of globalization of national economiesthere is increased movement of human resources, capitaland ideas. There is also an increase in uneven distributionof wealth and poverty particularly in developing countries.Slum formation is closely linked to economic cycles, trendsin national income distribution and national economicdevelopment policies. There are some positive aspects ofglobalization. The multi-national companies have createdsome job opportunities in developing countries. There isalso increase of financial support to NGOs and othercommunity based organizations from internationalcommunities and organizations for undertaking some socialactivities for improving the living standard of poor people.

As stated above the negative aspect of theglobalization is that there is concentration of wealth andpoor people are the worst sufferers. The economic crises,often triggered by pressures of globalization, and

interpersonal problems have emerged as major reasonsfor driving vulnerable people to the edge of despair inKerala as the State tops the suicide rates in the country.The number of suicides has increased over the years.According to the State Commission for Women, Kerala isnow “at the receiving end of the adverse effects ofglobalization, commercialization and privatization” and thishas in part contributed to the high rate of suicides in theState.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

In the United Nations Millennium Declaration, Worldleaders pledged to tackle immense challenge posed bymushrooming growth of slums world-wide thereby settingthe specific goal of achieving ‘significant improvement inthe lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by the year2020’. This means addressing not only the needs of slumdwellers for shelter but also the broader problem of urbanpoverty, especially unemployment, low incomes and lackof access to basic urban services.

However surprising it may appear but indeed, eventhe slums offer their residents better life chances, in termsof jobs, education and income ,than they had back in thevillage. Census 2011 says the number of slum dwellersrose 25% over a decade to touch 6.5 crore, or about 16%of India’s urban population. Experts suggest this is anunderestimate, due to exclusion of small slum clusters. Amore realistic number would be 11.5 crore, or 30% of theurban population. This shows miserable lack ofpreparedness for India’s ongoing structural transformationfrom an agrarian economy to an industrial and post-industrial one, in which large numbers of people migratefrom countryside to town.

If all of migrants have to be housed in existing towns,pressure would mount on basic infrastructure and slumsand slum dwellers would proliferate further. We need tobuild many new towns, to avoid this degradation of humanlife.

This requires reform that will enable release of moreland to build new towns. Zones for urbanization should beidentified in advance, land in which should qualify forautomatic conversion from agricultural to commercial use.

New models of town planning must be introduced toincrease density, reduce commutes, optimize energy useand create open spaces for sports and communitygatherings. India’s new towns are run by bureaucrats andauthorities, and lack institutions of self-governance.

This must change. A cluster of new cities will comeup when the corridor linking Delhi to Mumbai, being donein collaboration with Japan, is complete. Similarly, another


extension is being planned from Mumbai to Kolkata. Suchprojects should materialize the vision for new, slum-freeurbanization.

The Supreme Court in a recent judgement directedauthorities in Delhi to discharge their statutory obligationin keeping the city “at least reasonably clean”. The Courtdirected the concerned authorities “to take appropriatesteps for preventing any fresh encroachment orunauthorized occupation of public land for the purpose ofdwelling, resulting in creation of a slum”. It was furtherordered that “appropriate steps be taken to improve thesanitation in the existing slums till they are removed andthe land reclaimed.” The Court laid down the basis forthis by saying that “the density of population per squarekilometer cannot be allowed to increase beyond thesustainable limit. Creation of slums resulting in increasein density has to be prevented.” The judges also added:“Rewarding an encroacher on public land with freealternate site is like giving a reward to a pickpocket”.

Cooperativisation of Slums: In view of variousadvantages of cooperatives as outlined above, multi-purpose cooperatives of slum dwellers should be formedby motivating and educating them about the philosophyand ideology of cooperation and self-help. The local levelNGO should be given the responsibility of organizing theminto a cooperative. When the cooperative society becomesexperienced and self-reliant and is in a position to runtheir affairs on their own, the concerned NGO shouldwithdraw from the scene and let it function from its ownresources. With the experience so gained and training soacquired the NGO may shift to other area that requirestheir assistance/guidance in the process ofcooperativisation of slum dwellers.

Role of Cooperatives: This multi-purpose cooperativesshould raise institutional finance for improvement orconstruction of dwelling units and such other activity forthe benefit of members, encourage habit of thrift and tomake provision for the credit to needy people within thecooperative for employment generation, run ration shops,kerosene and allied commercial activities to provide dailyneeds at affordable cost and at their door steps, undertakeeducational, hygienic and other health and communityrelated activities, undertake repair and maintenance ofcommon space, arrange group insurance, generalinsurance and other social security measures.

Security of Tenure to Women: In India, women in urbanslums live in dire poverty and are prone to violent crimesand limited employment opportunities and contributesubstantially to the growth of the family. As such only thewomen should be admitted as members of thecooperatives. This will give status and respect to thewomen in the family and improve their contribution to the

community. The title of the land should be given to thewomen members and selling of their right should beprohibited and if at all they want to leave they shouldsurrender their right to the cooperative.

The U.N. Habitat campaign for ‘secured tenure’ isvery note-worthy as it is the most important element forattracting institutional and individual investment in orderto improve the living conditions of slum dwellers. Hernandode Soto - a well known economist from Peru alsoadvocates for giving formal title deeds to the poorest slumdwellers. It is legal proof of their ownership which willenable them to raise loans for improving their houses andenvironment and starting business. The PeruvianGovernment has issued one million titles to slum dwellersthereby improving their living conditions by raising loansfrom various sources and by contributing themselves.

Poverty Alleviation Programmes: As stated abovepoverty is the main cause of slum formation. The multi-purpose cooperatives should undertake activities like thriftand credit, health and social services, rental housing,library, child care, care for elderly, distribution of buildingmaterials, etc. This will generate additional income forcooperatives and employment opportunities for theirmembers.

The Government has been implementing variousschemes of poverty alleviation through DRDA, DWACRA,Indira Awas Yojana, etc. These agencies may beimpressed upon to involve cooperatives in theimplementation of such schemes.

Basic Services: Cooperatives should sensitize slumdwellers about the constant threat posed by lack of basicservices. Further the cooperatives should be entrustedfor providing basic amenities like water, electricity, sanitaryservices for their members with the help of local bodies.These cooperatives will ultimately transform them into newcommunities wherein “each is for all and all are for each”.

People’s Participation and City Management: TheSecond HABITAT campaign is for good urban governance.It advocates transparency, responsibility, accountability,just, effective and efficient governance of towns, citiesand metropolitan areas. The cities create jobs and theyare strong holds of economic development and providebetter quality of life to different socio-economic groups.Cities have remained the backbone of national economiesand will continue to be so in future. It is, therefore, pertinentthat these cities are managed properly by professionalsand with people’s participation. We should accept peopleas part of the solution and they should feel they are partof the city. In Britain, Generalist Administrators do not runlocal governments. The management of the cities hasbeen given to specialists from traffic management to

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garbage removal. The City of Curitiba, one of the fastestgrowing cities in Brazil, has set an example of innovativeurban management by creating a sustainable urbanenvironment and a strong sense of citizenship in its people.Housing provision is an integral part of urban development.

These ideas should be implemented in Indian citiesto rebuild our civilization. Good governance also meansinvolvement of residents including poor people in thedecision making of the urban governance. The multi-purpose cooperatives can play a very important role inthis direction.

Infrastructure Development: There is a paramount needto invest in infrastructure to enhance economicallyproductive activities of urban centres like electricity, accessto water, sanitation, roads, footpath, waste-management,etc. This will ultimately improve the quality of life in theslums. City managers, State and national Governmentsshould earmark substantial funds for infrastructuredevelopment thereby improving the living conditions inslums.

Reversing Urbanization: There is also an emergent needto discourage migration into urban centres and reversethis trend through speedy development of rural areas andsmall cities in order to effectively deal with mushroominggrowth of slums. Instead of encouraging people to comewhere infrastructure is available, the infrastructure foradequate employment opportunities, better sanitation andhygienic conditions, sufficient facilities of health and familywelfare, affordable housing, access to safe drinking water,transport and communication facilities, education, etc.should be made available to the poor needy people wherethey live. The findings of a recent study also show that22% of the slum dwellers want to go back to their nativeplaces. In 1997-2000 Hungary saw a slow-down trend ofrural urban migration because of development of ruralareas.

Rural Development schemes like NationalProgramme for Rural industrialization with activeinvolvement of Khadi and Village Industries Commissionand involvement of Panchayats to promote local initiativein the area of primary health care units, Gram SamridhiYojna, Employment Assurance Scheme and SwarnaJayanti Gram Swa-Rozgar Yojna will go a long way incheering the upgradation for rural areas. All these schemesand projects need proper integration and properimplementation with the motive to develop rural areas.Some of these jobs can be entrusted to village panchayats,as they would be in a better position to monitor theirimplementation.

Secondly, the Indian farmers use ancient tools andfarm technologies. Further the size of holdings does not

afford economics of scale and the infrastructure to delivertheir goods to the market is non-existent when comparedto the developed World. We should bring moderntechnologies; remove restrictions on storage, processingand movement of farm products by the farmers or traders,liberal and cheap finance and availability of the latestplanting materials and other farm inputs to farmers. Thiswill create lot of jobs in rural areas and improve thefinancial position of farmers. The example of China canbe quoted where agricultural reforms provided more jobsand freedom to farmers to sell their produce in open marketthereby bringing prosperity to them.

Strengthening of housing activities in rural areas willnot only improve living conditions of farmers, but alsocreate employment opportunities. This is an area of hugeunmet demand and also a labour intensive activity. Theexperience of Grameen Bank Housing Programme inBangladesh, have set an example, in alleviating povertyin rural areas by way of making the credit a powerfulinstrument for socio-economic change to enable the ruralpoor to fight their ways out of the vicious circle of povertyand live with human dignity. These findings are based onthe basis of a study conducted by the author on theworking of World Habitat Award Winning Project ofGrameen Bank Housing Programme in Bangladesh.

The slums are reality of today and cities are collectivefuture of human beings. We should take collectiveresponsibility for their future development.

“All cities are mad,

but the madness is

gallant. All cities are

beautiful but the

beauty is grim”

–Christopher Morley


* Executive Director, ** Dy.Chief (TDE&IC), *** Sr.Field Officer,Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC), Ministryof Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India

USE OF BAMBOO INHOUSING AND BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

—Dr. Shailesh Kr. Agrawal*, S.K. Gupta**, Dalip Kumar ***

PREAMBLE

Wood has been used for centuries as a commonmaterial in construction of buildings and other structures.Similarly, bamboo has also a long and well establishedtradition for being used as a construction materialthroughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions of theworld.

In the modern context when forest cover is fastdepleting and availability of wood is increasingly becomingscarce, the research and development undertaken in pastfew decades has established and amply demonstratedthat bamboo could be a viable substitute of wood andseveral other traditional materials for housing and buildingconstruction sector and several infrastructure works. Itsuse through industrial processing has shown a highpotential for production of composite materials andcomponents which are cost-effective and can besuccessfully utilized for structural and non-structuralapplications in construction of housing and buildings.

Main characteristic features, which make bambooas a potential building material, are its high tensile strengthand very good weight to strength ratio. The strength-weightratio of bamboo also supports its use as a highly resilientmaterial against forces created by high velocity windsand earthquakes. Above all bamboo is renewable rawmaterial resource from agro-forestry and if properly treatedand industrially processed, components made by bamboocan have a reasonable life of 30 to 40 years. The naturaldurability of bamboo varies according to species and thetypes of treatments. Varied uses and applications inbuilding construction have established bamboo as anenvironment-friendly, energy-efficient and cost-effectiveconstruction material. The commonly used species inconstruction are Bambusa balcooa, Bambusa bambos,Bambusa tulda, Dendrocalamus giganteous,Dendrocalamus hamiltonii, Dendrocalamus asper, etc.

Bamboo, a highly versatile resource and widelyavailable, is being used as an engineering material forconstruction of houses and other buildings. A number ofsmall and medium sized demonstration structures havealready been constructed during past few years. These

have shown very good performance in different climates.In order to propagate use of bamboo in housing andbuilding construction for wider application, awareness andconfidence building amongst professionals andhouseholders is required. This calls for organized actionson prototyping, demonstration, standardization aimed atimproving acceptance levels and promoting appropriateconstruction practices.

World-wide Availability of Bamboo(Number of bamboo species and coverage by

country, In Asia)

Country/Area Number of AreaSpecies (million

hectares)Bangladesh 33 0.6

China 300 2.9(only ‘Moso’)

India 136 9.6

Indonesia 35 0.1

Japan 95 0.12

Malaysia 44 0.3

Myanmar 90 2.2

Papua New Guinea 26 N/A

Philippines 55 N/A

Sri Lanka 14 N/A

Taiwan 40 0.18

Thailand 60 0.81

Over twenty million tones of bamboo are harvestedeach year, with almost three fifths of it in India and China.An estimated 25 million people all over the world dependon or use bamboo materials. The table above indicatesthe distribution of bamboo in Asia. It also serves to highlightthe potential dominance of India with its vast resourcesand reserves of bamboo in future economic activity andtrade.

In India, 28% of area and 66% of growing stock ofbamboo is in NE region and 20% of area and 12% ofgrowing stock in MP & Chhattisgarh.

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Availability of Bamboo in India

Sl. State/Region Area GrowingNo. % Stock %1 North East 28.0 66

2 Madhya Pradesh 20.3 12

3 Maharashtra 9.9 5

4 Orissa 8.7 7

5 Andhra Pradesh 7.4 2

6 Karnataka 5.5 3

7 Others 20.2 5

The housing and building construction industry isone of the largest consumers for natural mineral resourcesand forests. It is increasingly realized that innovativebuilding materials and construction technologies whichoffer potential for environmental protection, employmentgeneration, economy in construction and energyconservation need to be encouraged as best options tomeet the rising demand of housing. Whole of north-eastis prone to earthquakes and falls under Seismic Zone V.BMTPC lays emphasis on promoting design andconstruction of disaster resistant technologies for housing.Construction techniques using bamboo as main materialhave been found very suitable for earthquake resistanthousing. With the constant rise in the cost of traditionalbuilding materials and with the poor affordability of largesegments of our population the cost of an adequate houseis increasingly going beyond the affordable limits of morethan 30-35% of our population lying in the lower income

segments. This calls for wide spread technologydissemination of cost effective building materials andconstruction techniques.

Current Usages of Bamboo

1 Scaffolding 24%

2 Paper 20%

3 Handicraft 19%

4 Miscellaneous 15%

5 Illegal exports 13%

6 Internal consumption 9%

The Market for Bamboo:

– Decorative and shuttering plywood, various boardproducts such as block board, wafer board, stripboard, laminated boards, roofing sheets

– Earthquake-resistant and long-lasting conventionalhousing and buildings. Two-floored rural houses.

– Improved roads, bridges, culverts, retaining walls

– Water-tanks, biogas plants, telephone/electricity poles

– Furniture; fuel-wood, charcoal and briquettes, activecarbon

– Matchsticks, agarbattis, toothpicks, skewer sticks,etc.

– Schooling: pencils, rulers, blackboards

– Pulp and paper, particle board, MDF, handicrafts

– Prevent landslides, soil and riverbank erosion

– Bamboo shoots as food.

BAMBOO AS A BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTIONMATERIAL

Bamboo is structurally stronger than steel. At thesame time, it is light-weight, easily workable, and hasvibration damping and heat insulation properties.Structurally, bamboo can find application in three maintypes of structures: scaffolding, housing, and roads.

Scaffolding

Bamboo is being used for scaffolding in most of thecountries where it grows. In fact, despite constructionbecoming high-rise, bamboo has continued to holdadvantages over other materials such as steel, which hasentered the scaffolding market recently. Steel scaffoldingis available as an industrial product of standardizeddimensions that make it quick to erect and dismantle.

(Source: NBM Website)


Moreover, steel can be used at least 50 times more thanbamboo, which can be used five to ten times at mostdepending upon the load of the construction. In thisrespect, bamboo scaffolding needs some technicalupgrading.

However, bamboo is a preferred scaffolding materialbecause its flexibility in the variety of lengths that it canbe cut into, the lower investments that contractors needto make in the scaffolding stocks (bamboo costs just 6per cent of the price of steel for similar quantity ofscaffolding) and the ease with which it can be set up anddismantled. It is the preferred scaffolding option even indeveloped countries such as Hong Kong and continuesto be used for the majority of high-rise buildings in thesecountries

In India too the usage of bamboo for the purpose ofscaffolding is on the higher side. There is virtually novalue addition on the raw bamboo used for scaffoldingpurposes.

Housing

In a structural application, bamboo rounds are usedto create roof support systems. These systems include aprefabricated triangular truss comprising units eight metreslong. A truss can be carried by four people, and deflectsonly 2.5 cm along its entire length. It is covered withbamboo boards, lath and plaster to create a waterproofroof. This system utilises bamboo rafters with bambooboards, which are plastered on both sides, and fired claytiles are used to waterproof.

Floor:

Bamboo flooring and bamboo board are newlydeveloped interior designing material made using modern

scientific methods fromsuperior quality bamboo.Bamboo flooring is anattractive alternative towood or laminate flooring.

Bamboo with a wallthickness of culm of atleast 11 mm is suitable formaking floorboards. Theprocess of making bamboo strip flooring consists of thefollowing steps:

– Hollow bamboo of a minimum thickness of 11 mmis sliced into strips.

– These strips are milled to a thickness of 7 mm. Theyare then boiled to remove the starch and treated foranti-moth, anti-mildew, etc.

– The strips are then dried and carbonised (if required).

– The dried strips are now milled to 5 mm thickness.

– These strips are now glued and laminated into solidboards under high pressure, which are then milledinto standard strip flooring profiles.

The machinery and equipment required formanufacturing bamboo flooring can be imported fromTaiwan, though some is available locally as well.

Floors can be made out of flattened bamboo, wovenbamboo mats or split bamboo.

As reinforcement:

There are fourcategories in which the useof bamboo has been made:

1. Bamboo fibres incement mortar forroofing sheets

2. Split bamboo asreinforcing bars inconcrete

3. Bamboo as a form work for concrete

4. Bamboo as a soil reinforcement

For Roofing:

Bamboo MatCorrugated Roofing Sheethas been developed byBMTPC in closecollaboration with IndianPlywood Research and

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Training Institute (IPIRTI) Bangalore, India. It is madefrom woven bamboo mats.

For Walls:

Woven bamboo matsare used to make walls incountries such asBangladesh and India.Vertical whole or halvedculms and flattenedbamboo strips are alsoused for making walls.Walls can be made withbamboo as a minorcomponent and mud as amajor one.

For Doors and Windows:

Bamboo can be fashioned artistically to make doorsand windows.

BMTPC’S INITIATIVES IN PROMOTION OF BAMBOOIN HOUSING & BUILDINGS

The Building Materials & Technology PromotionCouncil (BMTPC) under the Ministry of Housing & UrbanPoverty Alleviation, Government of India is activelyinvolved in development of bamboo based technologiesand to promote these technologies in the North-EasternRegion including other bamboo growing areas, byencouraging commercial production of bamboo basedproducts, construction of demonstration houses and settingup of Bamboo Mat Production Centres for processing ofbamboo, etc.

Bamboo Mat Corrugated Roofing Sheets

The BMTPC in collaboration with Indian PlywoodIndustries Research & Training Institute (IPIRTI), Bangalore,have developed a technology for manufacturing of BambooMat Corrugated Sheet (BMCS) which is durable, strong,water-proof, and decay-insect-fire resistant. The commercialproduction has been started at Byrnihat, Meghalaya. Theproduct has been accepted by the consumers and isbecoming increasing popular as a roofing option in the northeast part of the country. Itis estimated that in fullcapacity this unit willgenerate livelihood fornearly 7000 women/men(through mat weaving) inrural regions wherebamboo is abundantlygrown.

Bamboo Mat Corrugated Ridge Cap

BMTPC in collabora-tion with IPIRTI, Bangalore,has also developed a tech-nology for manufacturing ofBamboo Mat CorrugatedRidge Cap for roofing. Theridge cap are being pro-duced commercially.

Construction of Demonstration Structures

BMTPC has const-ructed 25 demonstrationstructures in Mizoram,Tripura, Nagaland, Megha-laya and Manipur usingbamboo based techno-logies. These includeHouses, OPD buildings,Library buildings, Picnichuts, Schools, etc. Thiscost of construction isconsiderably reduced usingbamboo based technolo-gies. The specificationsused are:

(a) Treated bamboocolumns and beams,

(b) Ferrocement walls on bamboo grid reinforcement,

(c) Treated bamboo trusses, rafters and purlins,

(d) Bamboo mat board in wooden frames for doorshutters,

(e) Bamboo Mat Corrugated Roofing Sheets,

(f) IPS flooring, etc.

Development of Technology for Construction of TwoStorey Bamboo HousingSystem

A technology forconstruction of two storeybamboo housing systemhas been developed and ademonstration house hasbeen constructed at thecampus of IPIRTI Bangalore. At each stage of houseconstruction various elements were tested and models ofsuch elements were made before the actual constructionwas carried out.


Design and Development of Pre-fabricated ModularHousing System

BMTPC has under-taken Design and Develop-ment of pre-fabricatedmodular housing systemusing bamboo and bamboobased composites in col-laboration with IPIRTI,Bangalore. A model design of pre-fab double walledbamboo composite house attached bath and kitchenhaving size 20’ x 24’ x 8’ was developed. This system willenable application of bamboo composite building materialsin pre-fabricated houses. These types of houses can beconstructed quite quickly for immediate and long termrehabilitation for post disaster relief.

Bamboo Mat Production Centres

BMTPC in coopera-tion with State Govern-ments, has establishedBamboo Mat ProductionCentres in the States ofAssam, Tripura, Mizoram,Meghalaya, Nagaland andKerala. The main objec-tives of Bamboo Mat Pro-duction Centres are to pro-vide uninterrupted supplyof bamboo mats to themanufacturing units ofbamboo based buildingcomponents for increasingthe productivity, quality, toprovide training in mat pro-duction process and to cre-ate employment opportuni-ties.

BMTPC also providedtraining on bamboo matproduction to the artisansfrom each Bamboo MatProduction Centres. Theproduction capacity of each production centre is 300 matper day. This provides employment generation of nearly150 women/men per day i.e. 45,000 women/men daysper year per Centre. Besides the above, the Centres canalso generate income by supplying bamboo sticks madeout of bamboo waste, to the artisans for making handicraftitems. The mats produced by Bamboo Mat ProductionCentres are likely to utilized by various manufacturerswho are producing Bamboo Mat Corrugated RoofingSheets and Bamboo Mat Boards.

Skill Development and Capacity Building

BMTPC organisesSkill Development and Ca-pacity Building Pro-grammes on Use of Bam-boo in Building and Hous-ing Construction on regu-lar basis jointly with StateGovernments in variousparts of North Eastern Re-gion. During the programme, demonstration structures areconstructed by the participants under the guidance ofmaster crafts mason as part of practical training.

BAMBOO – MORE THAN AN ALTERNATIVE

Bamboo has so far not been regarded as a substitutefor wood. An analytical look at the applications for whichwood is being used and the usage of bamboo indicatesthat it is possible to use bamboo for all the applicationsfor which wood is being used. The usage of bamboo hasin fact been established conclusively for categories thatconsume larger volumes of wood, namely, paper pulp,plywood, construction and furniture.

There are preconceived notions about the technicalcapability of bamboo. These have hindered the adoptionof bamboo as a wood substitute. The wood industry is notable to visualize bamboo as a process-friendly materialthat can peeled. It also considers bamboo to be susceptibleto fire, water and termites.

The Bamboo, if used efficiently, shall lead to thefollowing in the interest of the nation and masses:

– Enterprise Development

– Training for skill upgradation

– Employment generation

– Conservation of forest timber

– Bulk utilization of bamboo

CONCLUSION

Bamboo is a wonder grass, which can contributesignificantly to the economy and create employmentopportunities. Apart from its traditional use in handicrafts;rural housing; paper & pulp industry, bamboo has a longand well established tradition of being used as aconstruction material. With the rising global concern,bamboo is a critical resource as it is very efficient insequestering carbon and helps in reduction of GreenHouse Gas emissions. The Research & Development

24 NCHF BULLETIN

undertaken in past few decades have established andamply demonstrated that bamboo could be a viablesubstitute of wood and several other traditional materials.Technologies have been developed to produce boards,corrugated roofing sheets, ridge caps, particle boards,floor tiles, composite materials of comparable quality andat competitive price. In order to create higher visibility foruse of bamboo as a material for building and housingconstruction, following actions are required:

– Plantation of high quality of bamboo suitable forhousing and building construction.

– Construction of demonstration structures/housesincluding mass housing projects using bamboo basedtechnologies in order to create confidence amongthe users.

– Capacity building to enhance skills of bambooworkers, artisans and industrial workers on a widerscale.

– Development of technical Manuals and trainingmaterial, in local languages, for wider field applicationto help in efficient performance of the differentactivities.

– Providing local entrepreneurs information ontechnologies, machinery & equipment for setting upmanufacturing units on commercial scale.

– Development and design of new products/components suitable for application in buildingconstruction.

– Upgradation of machinery and tools for enhancedproduction and efficiency.

– Formulation of Indian Standards on bamboo basedtechnologies.

– Providing simple-to-use bamboo kits containing toolsfor processing of bamboo to villagers for employmentgeneration.

– Establishment of Bamboo Technology Incubators fordevelopment and promotion of bamboo basedtechnologies.

– Popularization of bamboo based technologies withinthe Central and State Government ConstructionAgencies by inclusion in their Schedule of Rates.

E-mail : [email protected] Office : 0484-2402913Fax : 0484-2402937 President : 0484-2401084

M.D. : 0484-2402734Dy. G.M. : 0484-2402335

KERALA STATE COOPERATIVE HOUSINGFEDERATION LTD., NO. 4330

P.B. NO. 1896, KALOOR,ERNAKULAM, KOCHI – 682017

The Central Financing Institutionof Housing Cooperatives in the State

Providing Long Term Loans upto Rs.10 LakhsFor Further Details, Contact Primary Housing Co-op. Societies

ADV. M. EBRAHIMKUTTY VENU S. NAMBISANPresident Managing Director


LISTENING THE VOICES FROM SLUMS

—A.K. Jain*

The Government of India, led by Prime Minister ShriNarendra Modi, recently unveiled the National Declarationon Urban Governance and Housing for All by the year2022. This historic decision aims to usher a new era ofsarvodya and swaraj for the teeming millions, who arelargely unheard and invisible vote banks. However, this isnot a new commitment. In the past every Governmentmade such manifestoes which ended up merely aspromises, largely because neither the bureaucrats northe professionals cared to listen to the voices of slumdwellers. The policies and programmes conceived withtheir perceptions and notions could not engage and alignwith the needs of the slum dwellers. As such, the paradoxis that slums keep growing at twice the rate of organisedhousing programmes. According to the Ministry of Housingand Urban Poverty Alleviation, the total housing shortagein India (2011) is about 18.78 million dwelling units (DUs),out of which 95% relate to social housing, i.e. economicallyweaker sections and low income groups.

About one-third to one-half of the population of India’smajor metropolitan centres, like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai,Bangalore and Chennai live in various types of illegal,informal and slum settlements. The slum population in

Indian cities has been estimated between 60 to 80 million(2011, MoHUPA) or 13.75 households in 1,08,000 slumclusters. The slums are the abode of poor and manifestinhuman living conditions, inequity and injustice.

On the eve of the independence of the country, on14th August 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Ministerof India declared from the ramparts of Red Fort in Delhithat “the service of India means the ending of povertyand ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity”.However, “the task that Nehru identified remains, alas,largely unaccomplished” (Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen).

What Jane Jacobs said in 1961 about the USA, canbe the voice from the slums of India of today:

“There is a wistful myth that if only we had enoughmoney to spend— the figure is usually put at ahundred billion dollars— we could wipe out all ourslums in ten years, reverse decay in the great, dull,gray belts that were yesterday’s and day-before-yesterday’s suburbs, anchor the wandering middleclass and its wandering tax money, and perhapseven solve the traffic problem. But look what wehave built with the first several billions: Low-incomeprojects that become worse centers of delinquency,vandalism and general social hopelessness than theslums they were supposed to replace. Middle-incomehousing projects which are truly marvels of dullnessand regimentation, sealed against any buoyancy orvitality of city life. Luxury housing projects thatmitigate their insanity, or try to with a rapid vulgarity.

Jane Jacobs, (The Death and Life of Great AmericanCities, Random House, New York, 1961)

During last years various schemes of affordablehousing have been taken up by the public and privatesectors. These have failed to reach to the slum dwellers,but have catered largely to the middle income groups.The slum dwellers are unable to access the formal housingunless the land cost is discounted, construction cost issubsidized, loan is available at low interest and rentalfacility is available. In fact we have to listen to the slumdwellers and understand whether they need a shelter asdefined by the Government? Whether shelter is a priorityor the livelihood?

Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation

The Urban Homeless

* According to Christopher Benninger “A. K. Jain spent a meaningfulcareer in planning for Delhi. He was a leader in a wide range ofcomplex issues of shelter strategies, retail, offices, recreation andopen spaces, institutions, manufacturing, urban infrastructure, socialamenities and transportation. He was an early proponent ofsustainable cities and conservation. One could say withouthesitation that the author is one of the “makers of modern Delhi.”

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guidelines define an affordable housing unit between21 to 60 sq. m. carpet area for EWS and LIG categories.The household income ceiling for these categories foreligibility was fixed at Rs 8000 and Rs.16,000 per monthrespectively in 2012, which is now Rs.16,000 andRs.25,000 respectively (2014).

However, in spite of various social housingprogrammes, most of the poor continue to live in theslums, old city, villages and illegal colonies. They bravethe threats of demolition and are deprived of basic servicesand facilities. The people in slums provide essentialservices to the city without claiming their right to city,shelter and municipal/public services. A study conductedby Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) and IndicusAnalytics on Economic Contribution of Urban Poor, foundthat slum population contributes 7.5 per cent of thecountry’s urban gross domestic product (2013).

Before we hear the slum dwellers, we have to seewho these people are? Are they visible? Whether theyare getting their share of services, water, jobs, electricity,shelter, toilets, mobility, education and healthcare, andother services? The slum dwellers comprise about one-fourth of India’s urban population, most of whom are ‘belowpoverty line’. They do odd, informal jobs to survive- streetvendors, domestic help, rag pickers, casual labour andunemployed. Many of them are migrants and comprisethe women, children, aged and disabled. They have nobank account, no assets, no shelter and not even anidentity or ration card. They are malnourished, uneducatedand cannot afford to send their children to the school.They are trapped in vicious cycle of poverty,unemployment, child labour and unhealthy livingconditions. They have no security of job, food and shelter,and have no rights, justice and power.

The World Bank in its report ‘Voices of the Poor’highlights its multi-dimensional nature. ‘Poverty is hunger,

poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and notbeing able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having accessto school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is nothaving a job, is fear for the future, living one day at atime. Poverty is loosing a child to illness, brought aboutby unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack ofrepresentation and freedom’.

However, we may not need the expertise of the WorldBank to deal with the Indian slums and poverty. On behalfof the poor slum dwellers we can listen to the voice ofMahatma Gandhi. What he said seven decades back isstill most pertinent and relevant:

I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt,or when the self becomes too much with you, applythe following test. Recall the face of the poorest andthe weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen,and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is goingto be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gainanything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a controlover his [her] own life and destiny? In other words,will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry andspiritually starving millions? Then you will find yourdoubts and yourself melt away.

This is an authentic voice of the poor slum dwellers.This involves looking at the slums with a differentperception and a new perspective. According toChristopher Benninger, ‘Transforming slums and povertyis visualizing the city from the “other way around!”. Putthe last person first, the hutment dwellers, the informalsector hawker, the small scale repairman, the physicallychallenged, domestic servants, street vendors, rickshawwallah, casual workers. Put yourself in the position ofelders, women, children and a diverse array of city dwellerswhose lives are affected intimately and almost momentby moment by distant professional decisions that shapethe city. Seek paths and channel to facilitate and empowerthem into becoming stakeholders, harnessing their hugeenergies and amplifying their contributions’.

The needs of the poor, slum dwellers can bedisaggregated into survival, supportive, transformationaland empowerment categories. Accordingly, an inclusiveapproach combines the following three components:

– Rights (shelter, participation, information, jobs, etc.)

– Reforms (governance, land, legal, procedures,finance, etc.)

– Roadmap (spatial integration, shelter, infrastructure,etc.).

The walls of exclusion have to be dismantled by anenablement strategy (land, shelter, environment,technology, information, employment, services, etc.), and

Slums have about one-fifth of total Urban Population


by spatial integration- between plans and implementation,between social and economic growth and between spaceand time.

Many migrants, labourers, workers, beggars in thecity do not have shelter and live on pavements or in themargins of the slums. For them a regular dwelling unit onownership basis is unthinkable and alien concept. Thismeans that the definition of shelter should includedormitory, hostel, dharamshala, lodge, transit camp andnight shelter. As a human right, a city should provide anetwork of night shelters, old age homes, orphanages,women’s hostels, anangwadi, transit-camps anddormitories. These should reflect the socio-culturalbearings of the local community, as said by MahatmaGandhi:

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sidesand my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures ofall lands to be blown about my house as freely aspossible but I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.

A shelter for poor is an adobe of his/her desires:

Long did I cherish a desire, neither for wealth orfortune, but my house tucked away in a corner ofthe earth, where I could be with my thoughts.

Rabindra Nath Tagore

According to the Association for Settlements andHousing Activities (ASHA), the studies indicate that shelterhelps immensely the poor in climbing up the socio-economic ladder. The provision of shelter is his/her right.This needs revisiting the land policy, infrastructuredevelopment, concepts of planning, land use, tenure andbuilding regulations. Innovative approaches should beworked out to provide shelter by harnessing the communityresources. The approach has to be differentiated according

to the specific issues and local context. Universal solutions,such as low-rise slum rehabilitation, may not work in themega-cities, where land cost is too high or it is simply notavailable.

For the poor shelter and livelihoods overlap. As suchtheir housing should intertwine with earning facility andmicro-jobs. This implies that a higher level of mixed landuse and flexibility is provided in use of space, with smallshops, social space, especially for women and children,facilities, utilities and work places. The norms of mixedland use, zoning, density, FAR, and building controls canact as a tool to incentivise in-situ slum rehabilitation andopen up new areas of social housing. To optimise utilisationof scarce urban land, differential norms should be adopted.A fixed density could lead to under-utilisation of land andFAR or imposition of artificial limits, which can bedetrimental to provision of shelter and livelihoods.

In Delhi in-situ slum rehabilitation projects are basedupon: (a) using land as a resource, (b) market salecomponent of housing to subsidise social housing(maximum one-third of total FAR and land), (c) partcommercial use (10% of FAR) (d) optimum FAR (400)and a higher density pattern of (500 to 900 Dwelling Unitsper Ha). However, every project has to be based uponspecific local issues and provide flexible choices of in-situupgrading, relocation, land sharing or re-blocking. All theslum settlements in a city should be networked, wherethe local stakeholders plan together.

A critical concern in slum rehabilitation projects iswater supply, sanitation, waste management and power,for which services plans should be prepared in consultationwith the service agencies. Mandatory adoption of wastewater recycling, dual piping, natural light and ventilation,renewable energy, water conservation and intelligent

Slum Rehabilitation under JNNURM (Chandigarh)

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controls can make the housing development water andenergy efficient.

For slum rehabilitation and social housing affordabilityand financing are the critical issues. As a rule about halfof the social housing units should be available on rentalbasis, convertible to ownership after 10 years. The fundingpattern can be four layered-Government of Indiacontribution of 50 per cent, State Government and localbodies contribute one-third and remaining one sixth bythe slum families. Mixed use, Transfer of DevelopmentRights (TDR) and incentive Floor Space Index (FSI) canbe useful tools for the viability gap funding. Smart cardsshould be issued to slum families so that benefits reachto the genuine people.

The cost of land for slum housing can be met bycross-subsidy, compulsory reservation, land pooling andreconstitution, and by other similar instruments. In view ofthe recently notified Right to Fair Compensation andTransparency in Land Acquisition, Resettlement andRehabilitation Act, 2013, the acquisition of land hasbecome very costly and difficult. As such the option ofrecycling existing urban areas, including slum and squattersettlements and encroached lands should be explored asa priority. Land is the most expensive component ofhousing. If land cost is excluded, social housing becomesaffordable and viable. This implies mandatory reservationof land for social housing in all public and private housingprojects.

To make such schemes self-f inancing, theincentives like additional FAR, development rights,commercial component, etc. can be helpful. Further, itis necessary to optimise utilisation of land by higherdensity and FAR, reduce the cost and time in landdevelopment, construction and infrastructure provision.A new proposal that has been init iated by theGovernment of India is Home Owners Mortgage EquitySubvention Scheme (HOMES), under which loan limithas been raised from Rs.5 lakh to Rs.10 lakh for EWSand Rs.8 lakh to Rs.15 lakh for LIG category, alongwith 5.5% interest subsidy on these loans.

Without a legal right, poor cannot use their propertyas collateral and do not get a loan. As such granting alegal title or lease right is essential in all slum resettlementand low income housing schemes. A misconceptionamong the officials is that the subsidised housing of thepoor frequently changes hand and is bought over by thewell to do. However, the studies points out that the saleof housing in slum rehabilitation/resettlement schemes isabout half of the posh colonies i.e. 20 to 25 per cent inAmbedkar Nagar, New Delhi against 40 to 50 per cent inVasant Vihar (ASHA, 2000). However, to overcome thisproblem, it may be suggested that such housing may be

leased out to the slum cooperatives and individual dwellingmay be sub-leased to family members.

Jane Jacobs, reverberates the voices of slumdwellers: “Planning must aim at unslumming the slumsand clarifying the visual order of cities, and it must do soby both promoting and illuminating functional order, ratherthan by obstructing or denying it.” This can be only doneby listening the voices from slums and cries of its womenand children. Their voices can herald a new era ofsarvodaya (upliftment and development of all) and swaraj(self-governance).

Home is the one place inall this world where heartsare sure of each other. Itis the place of confidence.It is the place where wetear off and mask ofguarded and suspiciouscoldness which the worldforces us to war in self-defence, and where wepour out the unreservedcommunications of fulland confiding hearts. It isthe spot where expressionsof tenderness gush outwithout any sensation ofawkwardness and withoutany dread of ridicule.

–Frederic W Robertson


* Managing Director, Odisha Cooperative Housing Corporation Ltd,Bhubaneswar

AFFORDABLE HOUSING-A TRANSITION FROM DREAM TO REALITY

—Dr. Patanjali Tripathy*

INDIAN SCENARIO

FOOD, CLOTHING AND SHELTER are the threebasic human needs. Food gets priority attention of everyGovernment whether capitalist or socialist, whetherdeveloped, developing or under developed. In India, afterIndependence, Five Year Plans have been formulated forfostering planned socio-economic and balanced regionaldevelopment. Ever since, adoption of First Five Year Planin 1951-52 after independence, sincere attempt was madeto ensure production of adequate foodgrains anddistribution of the same among the people. There was 1stGreen Revolution, 2nd Green Revolution and now NationalFood Security Mission.

The issues relating to shelter deserves to get duepriority keeping in view its enormity and magnitude. Onestudy reveals that one fifth of the world’s population livesin Slum. Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation brings inmass exodus of rural people to urban areas in search ofemployment and livelihood opportunity. In absence ofscientific, inclusive and visionary Urban Planning, thehousing shortage scenario, coupled with the need for safedrinking water, sanitation, health and education getsaggravated contributing to pitiable living conditions ofpeople in urban areas including the metros.

No doubt, initiatives have been taken at theGovernment level, both Central as well as States tomitigate the housing problems. State Housing Boards,Development Authorities, Regional Improvement Trustshave been established with a view to formulating LongTerm Shelter/Housing Development Plans and Projects.The Private Builders and Real Estate Developers haveachieved significant strides in providing housing to people.But their contributions is confined to the metro, semi metroand few urban areas addressing mostly to the housingneeds of HIG/MIG category.

People belonging to Economically Weaker Section(EWS) and Lower Income Group (LIG) and Lower MiddleIncome Group (LMIG) have made significant contributionin the growth of any Urban Centre. But they are stillvulnerable as far as housing is concerned. Their plight isstill mostly unresolved. Investment or expenditure for

purchase of land and construction of houses or forpurchase of house or appartment by a Low or MiddleIncome household is perhaps the single largestexpenditure. They make investment of their entire life timesaving for realising their dream of having their “HomeSweet Home”. It constitute prime asset of their families.With the unabated increase in cost of land and cost ofconstruction, the miseries of LIG and EWS householdsgets multiplied. Their dream for a house of their own stillremain miles away from reality. Therefore, “AffordableHousing” deserves to get the priority attention of policymakers and urban administration. Neither, theDevelopment Authorities, nor State Housing Boards, noreven the Regional Improvement Trusts, address this issueof Affordable Housing on the plea of ‘non-availability’ ofland even though they get Government land at aconcessional rate. Even the private developers till recentpast have failed to take up the challenges of AffordableHousing.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING RE-DEFINED

A comparative study of the cost of house vis-à-visgross income of household presents a startling picture. Indeveloped countries, housing cost normally does notexceed 30% of a household’s gross income. In India,however, an average household spend around 40% to50% of their gross income for construction/purchase of ahouse. Besides, with scanty income and rising cost ofconstruction of house they are over–burdened with debtservices and trapped in the vicious circle. Over and abovethe cost of construction, there is stamp duty, holding tax,cost for approval of building plan etc. The incidence of allthese factors including the processing fees for housingloan, other hidden cost fall on the household. Besides,the borrowing capacity coupled with loan repaying ofcapacity of a person constitute an important factor ofAffordable Housing. As per the definition outlined by theDeepak Parekh Committee, the monthly income ofEWS/LIG household ranges between Rs.8000/- toRs.14,000/-. However, on the basis of the definitionadvanced by the Reserve Bank of India (based in 2008prices) which have been adopted by the Ministry ofHousing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Governmentof India, the monthly Income of EWS is confined toRs.5000/-, of LIG is between Rs.5001/- to Rs.10,000/-.Depending upon the subsistence level of income andstandard of living, the borrowing capacity of EWS may be

30 NCHF BULLETIN

maximum 3.5 time of annual income, in case of EWShouseholds 4 times of annual income and in case of MIGit is 5 times of annual income. Accordingly, the borrowingcapacity and repaying capacity of EWS, category of household is limited to Rs.3.50 lakhs, LIG - between Rs.3.50lakhs to Rs.7.5 lakhs, LMIG between Rs.7.5 lakhs toRs.9.5 lakhs and for MIG between Rs.12 lakhs to Rs.15.00lakhs.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban PovertyAlleviation has declared Interest subsidy @ 5% under theInterest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor.Under this Scheme, the maximum loan amount is likely tobe raised an additional limit of Rs.1.00 lakh to Rs.5.00lakh. The capability of making upfront payment towardborrower’s contribution is an important factor. In both EWSand LIG category of household, the maximum capacity islikely to be within 20% of total loan eligibility or purchaseprice of house. Linking the Interest Subsidy for HousingUrban Poor (ISHUP), the ceiling on loan eligibility andunit cost of house which is the essence of AffordableHousing may be clubbed as follows:

Category Loan EligibilityEWS Rs. 3.00 lakh to Rs. 5.00 lakhLIG Rs. 5.01 lakh to Rs. 8.00 lakhLMIG Rs. 8.01 lakh to Rs. 10.00 lakhMIG Rs. 10.00 lakh to Rs. 15.00 lakh

CHALLENGES

For successful implementation of Affordable HousingScheme, it is imperative to formulate strategies toovercome three challenges: (i) availability of land atconcessional rates (ii) adoption of technology to drasticallyreduce the cost of construction and (iii) minimum profitmargin.

(i) Availability of Land

Availability of land is a major constraint. Rising costof land, litigation and involvement of multiple middle-men and the benchmark price fixed by theGovernment make the matter most complicated. Theonly viable alternative is identification of land in theoutskirt of cities. Of course, it would have animplication on cost of development of infrastructurelike, road, provision for drinking water, sanitationsewerage and drainage, power supply etc.

(ii) Adoption of Technology

Adoption of technology for reduction of cost ofconstruction can play a vital role in implementationof Affordable Housing. Optimum use of buildingmaterials, establishment of prefabricated roof,columns manufacturing centres and manufacture ofthese materials adopting economics of scales willlead to substantial reduction of cost of construction.

It is quite relevant to mention here that PrivateBuilders and Developers are now acquiring cheapland and technology for low–cost housing after theGovernment have announced incentive for AffordableHousing. To commensurate with the initiative of theGovernment, the Reserve Bank of India has alsoannounced cheaper loan to the developers andbuyers specifically under this Affordable Housingsegment. There is unlimited demand for housesunder this segment. There is a large market for suchhomes. Yet there is supply constraints. The Ministryof Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, estimatesan acute shortage of 16.36 million homes in Indiaout of which around 96% is under EconomicallyWeaker Section and LIG segment. The challengefor the Builders and Developers is to find cheaperland and make the project economically viable. Inmost cases, such lands are available only at placesaway from cities. And these places do not havetransport facilities, sanitation, supply of drinking waterand sewerage. For development of theseinfrastructure, there is also a cost implication. Anotherchallenge that builders do encounter is to adopttechnology to manufacture building materials byscales and speed up construction.

The leading real estate houses like Tata Housing,ATS Infrastructure, Bhartiya Group have takeninitiatives to address these challenges with a view tocapitalising the huge market potentiality and bridgethe demands supply mismatch. The Tata Housinghas adopted a long term strategy to constructaffordable housing in a large scale in Bengaluru. Ithas even set up a pre-cast plant in Bengaluru wherepre-cast roof, beams, columns are manufactured andassembled on site to get a complete housing unitreducing cost of construction. The time saved has adirect bearing on reduction of cost of the house. TheBhartiya Group is coming up with a massiveaffordable housing scheme of 10,000 low cost housesover an area of 50 acres near Chennai. It has anambitious plan to provide 1 million houses in othercities across country. The ATS Infrastructure, aNoida- based Real Estate Developer, has built 400apartments with sale price @ Rs.10.00 lakh inBulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh. Strategies is volumegame-low cost, low margin and high volume. It iscoming up with similar projects in Muradabad andKanpur. The Anantaraj Industries has built 23000houses with one room, toilet and kitchen in theIndustrial Area in Rajasthan with a price tag @ Rs.8.9lakh per house. What is critical in low cost house isprompt approval of the plan and project by theDevelopment Regulators and Banks. In countrieslike Korea, South Africa and Mexico”, MassHousing Scheme with low cost have been verysuccessful.


(iii) Minimum Profit Margin

Keeping minimum profit margin is quite a sensitiveissue. The Development Authorities, State HousingBoards and private developers do take up CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility) activities. TheAffordable Housing for EWS, LIG and LMIG has ahuge demand. There is glaring mismatch betweendemand and market supply in this segment. Thevolume of business in this segment has thepotentiality to generate profit to the desired extent.

PRO-ACTIVE INITIATIVES OF THE RBI

The Reserve Bank of India has announced recentlya series of measures that encourage bank lending ratesto the affordable housing. It has broaden the scope ofaffordable housing in as much as both the small valueloans and home loans to individuals up to Rs.50.00 lakh(for houses of value upto Rs.65.00 lakh in metros) andloans up to Rs. 40.00 lakh ( home value of Rs.50.00 lakh)in other centres will be considered under affordablehousing. Extending these loans will entitle the Banks tofloat infrastructure bonds upto seven years. Money raisedunder these bonds will not be subject to reserverequirements such as Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) andStatutory Liquidity Reserve (SLR). Eligible bonds will alsoget exemption in calculation of priority sector lendingtargets. These measures will definitely make home loanportfolio more attractive. These measures are sequels tothe vision and Road map set by the Hon’ble FinanceMinister in his Budget allowing banks to float long termbond for lending to infrastructure.

The RBI reiterated that apart from what is technicallydefined as infrastructure, affordable housing is anothersegment of the economy which both requires long-termfunding and is of critical importance. It has taken initiativesto ease the way for banks to raise long-term resources tofinance their long-term loans to infrastructure as well asaffordable housing. This will help promote both growthand stability, as well as improve the supply side.

These initiatives and exemptions will mitigate theAsset-Liability Management (ALM) problems faced bybanks in extending project loans to infrastructure and coreindustries sectors. A collateral benefit in shape of bond isexpected to boost the development of the domesticcorporate bond market and address the resourcesconstraints.

BRIDGING THE GAP

It is imperative that all the stake-holders need toaddress the issues of affordable housing and to formulateAction Plan to bridge the gap persisting in the demandand supply of affordable housing. The stake-holders

include the Government of India. State Governments,Bankers, Development Authorities, Corporate housesincluding Real Estate Developers and HousingCooperatives.

A ROLE OF GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

Soon after Independence, the Government of Indiahas been taking plethora of initiatives to address theshortages of housing units – in general and for EWS andLIG categories in particular. These initiatives include:

(i) Integrated Subsidised Housing Scheme forIndustrial Workers and Economically Weaker Sections,1952 (ii) Low Income Group Housing Scheme, 1956(iii) Slum Improvement/Clearance Scheme, 1956(iv) Environment Improvement of Urban Slums, 1972(v) National Slum Development Programme, 1996,(vi) Scheme for Housing and Shelter Upgradation(SHASHU) as part of Nehru Rozgar Yojna, 1989, theNight Shelter Scheme, 1988. Though housing is a Statesubject the Government of India, initially provided fullfinancial assistance for implementation of these schemes.Subsequently those scheme were transferred to Statessector. However, acute resource constraints, dearth ofskills and capacity building deterred implementation ofthe schemes.

In the past five years, there has been renewed thruston affordable housing. The Government of India hasformulated and adopted the National Urban Housing andHabitat Policy, 2007 with a view to providing fiscalincentives and developing innovative financial instrumentslike mortgage used as securities, to augment flow offinance to the housing market and reform in Rent ControlAct. It also seeks to assist the poor and EWS category ofpeople to have access to subsidized housing on rentaland ownership basis. It also envisages for setting up ofa National Shelter Fund for providing subsidies to EWSand LIG housing. This Policy also aims at housing forurban poor and has also the benefit of cost subsidisationand higher tax exemption/concessions. The JawarharlalNehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), pro-vides for a scheme namely Basic Services for Urban Poor(BSUP). Now JNNURM Cities are covered by IntegratedHousing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP). TheRajiv Awas Yojna (RAY) envisages for slum-free cities.Under the Interest Subsidies Scheme for Housing theUrban Poor (ISHUP), the EWS get access to concessionalhousing loans. The affordable housing scheme getsIncome Tax Rebate under Section 81/A. of the Act. TheUnion Budget for 2012-13 also provided for exemptionfrom service tax in respect of mass housing upto an areaof 60 sq.mt. per unit. Besides formulation of policies, it isimperative that Government of India need to ensureeffective coordination, monitoring and funding for effectiveimplementation of these schemes within a timeline.

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ROLE OF THE STATE GOVERNMENTS

Since housing is a State subject, State need to takea proactive role in addressing housing shortage andproviding infrastructure for affordable housing. Moredependence on the Government of India or shiftingresponsibilities to the Centre by the State Governmentdoes not help solve the problem. Many State Governmentshave adopted appropriate policy support to promoteaffordable housing like single-window clearances ofhousing projects, reservation, allocation and alienation ofland for exclusive affordable housing, liberalization ofDevelopment and Regulation Act for EWS and LIGhousing, additional FAR/FSI exemption and concessionin stamp duty etc.

The Government of Odisha has taken initiative bycreating an enabling environment with appropriate policysupport for implementation of affordable housing for EWSand LIG Households keeping in line with various on-goingschemes of the Government of India. The Scheme forAffordable Urban Housing in Odisha, 2012 was formulatedin 2012 with an objective (i) to address shortage of EWS,LIG, LMIG and MIG housing in a time bound manner, (ii)prescribe unit cost and size of EWS and LIG housing (iii)to promote affordable housing through multiple costreduction measures and (iv) to provide linkages with slumredevelopment and rehabilitation programmes. Thescheme envisages four model (a) earmarking 60% oftotal built up area for EWS, LIG MIG housing developedby Odisha State Housing Board on Government land(b) Voluntary development on private land with reservationof 65% of built up area for EWS/LIG category andadditional FAR for HIG and Commercial purpose (c) PrivateDeveloper on Government land with reservation of 50%of built up area for EWS/LIG and (d) Voluntary socialHousing Scheme with 50% of built up area for EWS/LIGcategory and over all price cap of Rs. 15.00 lakh. With aview to making the scheme more effective in delivering itsobjective the Government of Odisha has revised theprovisioning of the scheme by virtue of a Notificationpublished in Gazette dated 26th September, 2013.

ROLE OF REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS

The Corporate Houses, and Real Estate Developerscommand a greater role in mitigating the plight of EWS,LIG and LMIG households for a dream house within theirrange of affordability. Like Tata Housing, ATSInfrastructures, Bhartiya Group and Anantaram Industriesother developers should come forward in an aggressiveway to capitalise the vast opportunity in this segment ofaffordable housing. High demand vis-a-vis low supplysyndrome, economic scale operation and high volumecommand the strengths and opportunity of this segment.The Real Estate Developers need to take the call and

strive hard with appropriate marketing strategy to usherin a new era of affordable housing. They should harnessthe potentiality in all ‘B’ and ‘C’ category of cities andUrban Centres in providing affordable housing for EWSand LIG households. This would pave the path forsustainable solution to the problem of affordable housing.

ROLE OF BANKS

The Commercial Banks including Private SectorsBanks and housing financing institutions can play a vitalrole in addressing the issue of affordable housing. Theinitiatives of the Reserve Bank of India as declared recentlywould definitely help the Commercial Banks to give arenewed thrust on sanction of loan under affordablehousing in an aggressive way. The bankers are nowpreparing for a pick up in home loans in the light of theincrease in tax breaks from Rs. 1.5 lakhs to Rs. 2 lakhs.The infrastructure status to affordable housing projectswould make it easier for developers to get finance. Banksalso prefer home loans because housing are less riskingas the lending is diversified and also provide them anopportunity to cross-sell other services to borrowers. Themeasures make home loans more attractive. The InterestSubsidy for Housing Urban Poor (ISHUP) will definitelyhelp in leveraging loans for affordable housing to theindividual buyers as well as developers. This would alsoboost the loan port-folio to a substantial extent.

ROLE OF HOUSING COOPERATIVES

The Housing Cooperatives comprising of the NationalCooperative Housing Federation of India (NCHF), 25 StateApex Cooperative Housing Societies and 35000 PrimaryHousing Cooperative Societies, constitute the third biggestnetwork next to credit and milk cooperatives having theirpresence in subdivisions and taluks. Housing Cooperativesare friendly towards members belonging to EWS and LIGcategory and strive hard to mitigate their plight for a dreamhouse. They command a niche market as they arecommitted to the concern of LIG & EWS category ofmembers. About 75% of the houses constructed with thefinancial assistance of Apex Cooperative HousingFederations, are meant for EWS and LIG categoryhouseholds. In the states like Tamil Nadu, Meghalayaand Maharashtra the ratio of houses constructed for EWS/LIG category is 89%, 73% and 63% respectively. Thehousing cooperatives need to take up the challenge ofAffordable Housing as this sector commands a nichemarket and accomplish the objectives. Housingcooperatives are not profit maximisation institutions. Theyhave a commitment and concern for the basic housingneeds for the poor, the EWS/LIG households. With itsvast network, infrastructure and resource base, housingcooperatives can present a meaningful solution to the

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MULTI-STATE COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES ACT, 2002–A Commentary

INTRODUCTION

Preamble

An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating tocooperative societies, with objects not confined to oneState and serving the interests of members in more thanone State, to facilitate the voluntary formation anddemocratic functioning of cooperatives as people’sinstitutions based on self-help and mutual aid and to enablethem to promote their economic and social bettermentand to provide functional autonomy and for mattersconnected therewith or incidental thereto.

Preamble is a recital with which an Act commencesgiving an insight into the intention of the legislature whileframing the law. It briefly lays down the objectives behindthe enactment. If one were to carefully study Margret Digby’s‘Digest of Cooperative Law’ in which she has carefullydescribed Cooperative law of different countries directedto different cooperative activity, one would find that the Multi-State cooperative Societies Act, 2002 (MSCS Act, 2002) isdefinitely original. It has not only tried to reverse the presentdirection of the movement going from above downwardsand never from below upwards, but also moved on fromthe ‘chalta hai culture’. By incorporating such epithets inthe very beginning as “to facilitate voluntary formation anddemocratic functioning of cooperatives as people’sinstitutions, based on self-help and mutual aid and to enablethem to promote their economic and social betterment andto provide functional autonomy etc.”, it has given a push tovoluntary formation of cooperatives, as distinguished froma Government effort. In this way preamble serves as anintroduction and indicates the objects of the Act almost inthe same fashion in which the cooperatively advance Stateof Bombay in the Pre-Independence era did in respect ofthe Bombay Cooperative Societies Act of 1925. It has madea qualitative difference in the common description of’Cooperation’, “as a plant held in position with bothhands by the Government since its roots refuse to enterthe soil”.

BROAD CONCEPTS OF COOPERATIVES

Self-help: This concept is the main pillar of strength ofcooperative ideology. A true cooperative avoidsGovernment doles. A Cooperative organization at grass-root level (where its members are individuals only)promotes self-help through mutual aid and as mutual aid

is one of the essential principles of Cooperation, it hasbeen included in the preamble of the Act. Mutual aidindicates a spirit of solidarity among the members. Amember of a true cooperative thinks and acts in terms ofcommunity of interest and through promotion of commoninterest of the members, promotes his own interests also.Self-help motivates material independence and members,in due course, think that cooperative organization is a seawhich they have to navigate themselves. They have alsorealized that cooperative is a power standing on its ownstrength and not an organization leaning against aGovernment wall.

Promote Economic and Social Betterment: Memberspossess a conviction about the value of cooperation as amethod to improve their economic and social lot. Theideology that “alone we cannot do anything but togetherwe can do everything” appeals to members. They havestarted realizing that Cooperation is much more thangetting money for the borrower and telling him when torepay. There has to be management by people undermost business-like conditions where one member maynot gain at the expense of other. In the ultimate analysiseach member gains on the economic and social ladder.

Functional Autonomy: Having worked in bittercompetition singly, members decide to work in combinationand seek autonomy. Now that they have organizedthemselves, they are unlikely to be swayed by passionand prejudice and break new path by managing theiraffairs. A primary cooperative, if well managed, can laythe foundation of the district body and by extricating itselffrom the grasp of Government control become a self-driven body. By working in a group, members can gettheir moral caliber strengthened and if industries come tobe organized on the cooperative lines, worker can be hisown servant and master and get to learn the tricks of self-government. For those who are poor, but less intellectuallydeveloped, ‘Cooperation’ can be a great level raiser ifwell managed.

Features of MSCS Act, 2002

(a) Whereas the MSCS Act, 1984 fixes 16.09.1985 asthe uniform date for all its provisions, the MSCS Act,2002 fixes different dates for different provisionscorresponding with the commencement of the dateof such provision, thereby interpreting as a referenceto the coming into force of that provision.

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(b) By making the objectives behind promulgation ofthe MSCS Act, 2002 more threadbare and broadbased and by adding the clause ‘social betterment’as one of the important planks of policy, it reducesthe deviation between the cooperative principles andcooperative practices. For example, by adding thesocial betterment clause, it can renege characterand repaying capacity of the borrower from thesecurity syndrome often insisted by the banks as amust which tends to gravitate towards landedproperty and the social betterment clause made asa policy seeks to improve the creditworthiness of alarge section of rural borrowers.

(c) In response to the reiterated demands in Parliamentand elsewhere to frame an appropriate law for thedemocratization and professionalization of themovement, MSCS Act, 2002 underscore the initiativeand drive of the Committee appointed by theGovernment of India vide their Memo No.L-11011/4/96-L&M dated 02.09.1996 to suggest amendmentsin the MSCS Act, 2002.

(d) It can serve as the future policy on cooperative lawas it has received fairly good acceptance from thenon-official lobby of cooperative movement from theCentral and State Governments, being somewhatmodelled upon the recommendations of LateCh.Brahm Prakash Committee.

CHAPTER I - PRELIMINARY

Section 1 : Short title, extent and commencement

(1) This Act may be called the Multi-State CooperativeSocieties Act, 2002.

(2) It extends to the whole of India.

(3) It shall come into force on such date as the CentralGovernment may, by notification in the OfficialGazette, appoint and different dates may beappointed for different provisions of this Act and anyreference in any such provision to thecommencement of this Act shall be construed as areference to the coming into force of that provision.

Section 2 : Application

This Act shall apply to-

(a) all cooperative societies, with objects not confinedto one State which were incorporated before thecommencement of this Act,- (i) under the CooperativeSocieties Act, 1912 (2 of 1912), or (ii) under anyother law relating to cooperative societies in force inany State or in pursuance of the Multi-unitCooperative Societies Act, 1942 (6 of 1942) or theMulti-State Cooperative Societies Act, 1984 (51 of

1984), and the registration of which has not beencancelled before such commencement; and

(b) all Multi-State Cooperative Societies.

COMMENTARY

Section 3 : Definitions

Rider

In cooperative context, a definition given in the statutecan have a different meaning than given in the definitionsas has been pointed out in National Building ConstructionCorporation Limited Vs. Pritam Singh Gill (AIR 1972 SC1579). This is because the words ‘Unless there is anythingrepugnant or unless the context otherwise requires’ areadded. In the Observations of the American CommissionPart-I Para 9 Page 198 the following is a valuable commentwhich is relevant to the context:

“If the Cooperative System is to flourish, it presupposes a cooperative spirit, that is to say a certainbrotherliness, possibly even some such mentality ofdisposition.”

AREA OF OPERATION

The central idea behind the concept of ‘area ofoperation’ is that the area from which members arerecruited is so compact and restricted that each memberpersonally knows the other. In a primary cooperative, it isthe first essential but in a Multi-State cooperative it isdesirable for the sake of friendly relations and mutualconfidence as all of them have to collectively contributeto the General Body, which is the main decision makingbody. It should, however, not be unplanned and excessive.Mutual knowledge among members gives birth to qualitieswhich can offset cooperative organisations’ weaknesses.The bond of friendship is a strong one and this familytype atmosphere is what generally members appreciate.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS (BOD)

It means the BOD which takes care of both directionand control of the Multi-State Cooperative. It contemplatesthe constitution of the Board through election. The bye-laws of the Multi-State Cooperative usually fix the date ofexpiry of the term of the Board. The composition andstrength of the Board is also determined in the Act, Rulesand Bye-Laws. This very framework lays down thedisqualifications of the members of the BOD also. As perthe laws’ dictat, a member of the BOD of a Multi-Statecooperative who is a delegate of an affiliated societyceases to be the member of the committee, if thecommittee of the Multi-State Cooperative which nominatedhim is superseded or the Multi-State Cooperative


nominates another delegate or if its registration iscancelled. In addition to the BOD, there are executivecommittees and other sub-committees appointed for aspecific purpose. In a way, they also function as theGoverning Body to whom the management of the societyis entrusted in respect of matters delegated to them. Inthis way these smaller committees are committees withinthe definition of the term, with the proviso that all thatthey decide is subsequently ratified by the full Board.Article 19(1)(c) of the constitution acts both ways i.e. itallows citizens to form associations etc. for the purchaseof their economic and social objectives as singly they donot succeed. This very right provides the statute toprescribe certain conditions of daily governance relatingto constitution, management……as pointed out inK.P.Shenoy Vs. State of Karnataka 1 LR 1995 Kar510.

BYE-LAWS

Bye-laws are detailed guidelines framed by the Multi-State cooperative for its internal regulation which are dulyregistered alongwith its registration. These includeamendment also which are duly registered and stampedby the registering authority. Without registration bye-lawshave no legal validity. These are framed locally and arein conformity with the general law. Bye-laws have to benecessarily in conformity with the Acts and Rules underwhich these are framed. Bye-laws are either framed bythe Central Registrar which are called Model bye-laws orproposed by the promoter members of the Multi-StateCooperative in question at the time of submission of theregistration documents to the Central Registrar who seesto it that bye-laws would promote the Multi-StateCooperative and do not legalize what has been prohibitedby the MSCS Act, 2002.

CENTRAL REGISTRAR

Amongst other officers who are delegated powersunder the MSCS Act, 2002, the Central Registrar is thecentral figure under the Act. Unlike the Registrar of Firmsand Companies who has not much discretion andpractically no responsibility, the Central Registrar generallydefines the terms on which the Multi-State cooperativescome into existence, has the power to keep himself fullyinformed of its working and has also the discretion tobring its existence to an end. In a Firm or Company onthe other hand, the share holders are managing theiraffairs and the general public is free to deal with the Firmor Company the way it likes. The reason for giving somuch power to the Central Registrar becomes clear whenone understands the class of members for whom the Actis intended.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE

He is the real head of the Multi-State cooperativewho directs all its operations. Whatever duty is assigned

to him in the Act, he handles successfully, carries it to itslogical conclusion. Not infrequently, cooperatives fall inthe hands of wrong persons who subsequently abusetheir position. With the complexities in work growing inNational Federations at a faster speed, the job of theChief Executive is no longer to command and control butto cultivate and coordinate the actions of others at alllevels of the organization. The only remedy for itsprevention is the careful selection of the Chief Executiveand regular control. Section 42 and Section 45 of therepealed Act, 1984 alongwith Section 49 and Section 52of the MSCS Act, 2002 define the powers and functionsof the Chief Executive.

COOPERATIVE BANK

(a) The primary function of this Banking organization isto balance the finances of the movement in its areaof operation, undertake branch banking, attractdeposits, provide a center through which surplusresources can pass to meet the needs of the otherplayers, arrange remittances, serve as a clearinghouse for the cheques of cooperative banks of thearea and rediscounting of bills. They also exist tolend money and form a necessary link between theborrowers and depositors of the area. They are notone sided lenders only – a feature which is usuallyattributed to them.

(b) A Multi-State Cooperative Society registered underthe provisions of MSCS Act, 2002 is both a societyas well as a cooperative bank. Under Section (3)(f)the definition of a Cooperative Bank is added whichdoes not explain the role of cooperative bankenvisaged in Banking Regulation Act, 1949. Althoughmost of the provisions of MSCS Act are applicableto the MSC acting as a Bank, yet the dominant roleis reserved for the RBI and the priorities assignedthereon are mandatory. Even the Central Registrarwho is the Central Authority for the disposition ofbusiness of a MSC has been made subservient toRBI under sections 87 and 88 of the MSC SocietiesAct. The Case (Apex Coop. Bank of Urban Bank ofMaharashtra & Goa Vs. MSCB Ltd. and Others,2003, 11 Sec.66).

COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLES

These are the cornerstones of cooperative ideologywhich harmonizes the best elements of socialism andliberalism. It falls in the sphere of the activities ofInternational Cooperative Alliance (ICA) becausecooperation is a world-wide movement and is widelysought after. Though forms of ‘Cooperation’ differ fromcountry to country as do prevalent cooperative laws, yetthe basic principles adopted by the movement everywhereare the same. These are available on the First Scheduleof MSCS Act, 2002.

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COOPERATIVE SOCIETY

It is an organization brought into existence by thepromoter members for the betterment of their social andeconomic position on the basis of equality, democracyand self-governing basis. The sociologists and law makershave determined the various characteristics of acooperative society which must be present if it is to enjoythe status for availing certain concessions given in thelaw. On few subjects there is more apprehension thanthat of the capacity of ‘Cooperation’ as a panacea for allevils of society at large. It is only those who wouldhave a new world created in-a-day who doubt itspotentialities.

COOPERATIVE YEAR

The cooperative year, traditionally ended with 30thJune. For the last more than two decades, it has come tobe reckoned with 31st March. The agricultural businessdominated the movement and the country’s economy alsofollowed suit. The main Rabi crop’s maturity and the crop’sarrival in the mandis coincided with May and June andbecause of these overwhelming factors, theappropriateness of fixing 30th June as the closing datemay have been adopted. As a result of the centrallysponsored schemes, the cooperative movement diversifieditself into various sectors such as dairy, housing, labour,industry, processing, consumer, etc. and these sectorsdeveloped greater coordination with Government policies.This necessitated a rethinking for the yearly closing tocoincide with 31st March.

(a) Calendar Year = 31.12

(b) Financial Year = 31.3

(c) Cooperative Year = 30.6 / 31.3

DEPOSIT GUARANTEE AND CREDIT CORPORATION

It serves the long felt need of furnishing guaranteeto the depositors alongwith refund of amount in thecooperative banking segments. RBI has made it mandatoryfor all cooperative banks to put in place a system wherebythe safety of the deposits of the general public is ensuredin the event of the inability of the bank to return thedeposit amount along with interest. This job is handled byDICGC which is set up w.e.f 1.1.1962. It is a full fledgedbody having corporate assistance. For this purpose, theRBI can ask the Central Registrar for the winding up ofa cooperative bank in the circumstances referred to inSection 13-D of the Deposit Insurance Credit GuaranteeCorporation Act-1961 (DICGC Act-1961). RBI can alsostall any process of compromise or arrangement or ofamalgamation or of reconstruction (including division andreorganization) of the bank under the provisions of DICGCAct-1961).

FEDERAL BODY

Federalism is one of the basic features of thecooperative ideology. With the diversification of thecooperative movement there has occurred a growth offederal organizations and a gradual taking over of theresponsibility by them which was earlier with the CentralRegistrar. Through the principle of federalism everyaffiliated society to the next level is able to take directpart in its management and ensures that the officers ofthe federal body are attuned to the interests of theprimaries. Another best feature of federalism is itsdemocratic base distinct from the wide-spread attitude of‘profit first’.

GENERAL BODY

The General Body constitutes all the members ofthe Multi-State Cooperative. It is well-known in cooperativemovement that the General Body is the supreme authority.The concept of supremacy of the General Body did notfind mention in the Cooperative Societies Act of 1904 and1912. For the first time, Section 25 of the Model Billsuggested by the Law Committee talked of final authority.There is a provision of Annual General Meeting andSpecial General Meeting in the MSCS Act, 2002. What isnoteworthy is that in Section 38(2) proviso, the exerciseof powers by General Body shall not override the exerciseof the powers by the Board or any officer of the MSCSAct, 2002. The powers and functions of the General Bodyas also of the BOD are clearly specified in the Act, Rulesand Bye-laws.

GENERAL MEETING

Section 38 of the MSCS Act, 2002 makes necessaryprovisions as regards the powers of the General Body.The general meeting must take place once in a year atleast; and either the Central Registrar or a certain numberof members may requisition to meet in a Special Meeting.In the case of societies whose membership is large, ordistributed over a wider area, meeting of a smaller bodyconsisting of delegates may be called. If Government isa contributor to the share capital, it may also nominate itsrepresentative. In 1965 CLJ 165 the Maharastra Tribunalheld that a Special GB meeting can overrule a resolutionpassed by the Ordinary GB. The Tribunal also held thatif proper time is not given to all the members prior to themeeting as laid down in the Rules and Bye-laws, themeeting would be illegal.

MEMBER

Although the word ‘person’ appearing in the definitionhas not been fully defined yet, according to GeneralClauses Act, it also includes any company or association


or body of individuals whether incorporated or not. Theterm ‘person’ includes a registered cooperative also. Inthe erstwhile Madras State for instance, not only individualsbut also institutions like temples, mutts, jails, hospitalsand hotels were also eligible for membership and manyof them joined the membership of consumer cooperativestores in Madras and made purchases from them andavailed concession and countered losses.

MEMBER COOPERATIVE

A Multi-State cooperative society has two types ofmembers. The first is a person joining in the applicationfor registration of a Multi-State cooperative and secondlya person ‘’admitted” to membership after registration inaccordance with the bye-laws and rules. A new memberhas, therefore, to be admitted by the committee of theMulti-State cooperative. The model bye-laws of the societylay-down that applications for admission for members shallbe disposed off by the Board which shall have power togrant admission or refuse it without assigning any reasonand that no one can claim admission as a matter of right.No person can insist on admission into a society merelybecause ‘open membership’ is a cooperative Principle.Though a ‘Cooperative’ does not belong to its originalfounders only and is not a closed preserve of the few, yetmembers cannot be admitted indiscriminately.

MULTI-STATE COOPERATIVE SOCIETY

Conceptually, it is a cooperative which is having itsarea of operation in more than one State. All the 21National Federations given in the Second Schedule of theMSCS Act, 2002 are also, in a sense, Multi-Statecooperative societies. It has all the features of anycooperative organization with the only difference that itsarea is extended to more than one State as they, throughcontinuous success and close supervision of their affairsimproved their classification and graduated to a Multi-State cooperative. Prior to 1976, membership of 6 out of10 National Federations then existing was limited to Statelevel federations only. On the advice of Government ofIndia in 1976 some National Federations amended theirbye-laws so as to extend their membership to below levelsState federations. This move was opposed by the Statelevel federations tooth and nail. They pleaded that it notonly diverted the attention of national federation from itslegitimate job of giving first attention to promote their Statelevel federations, but also unnecessarily extended theirGBs and consequently their expenses. Only NAFED stoodto gain from this change because of improved businessrelations with the primaries although, from federal structurepoint of view, it militated against cooperative ideology.

MULTI-STATE COOPERATIVE SOCIETY WITH LIMITEDLIABILITY

All the 21 national level federations given in Schedule

2 of the MSCS Act, 2002 have limited liability only.Although, the concept of unlimited liability has beenpractically wiped out from the entire cooperative structureand limited liability cooperative is the rule and unlimitedliability an exception, yet, unlimited liability carries littledanger in a well-conducted Multi-State cooperativebecause the members impose a number of restrictions onthemselves to reduce the danger of unlimited liability onthem in the event of cooperatives’ coming under windingup process.

NOTIFICATION

It is the legal endorsement through official gazetteof any averment made in the Act or Rules bestowingcertain rights and obligations on some specific MSCSocieties. For example, if a Multi-State cooperative bankhas to work as a financial institution, then, CentralGovernment through gazette notification specifically namesthat bank as such or when powers of the Act exercisableby the Central Registrar are to be exercised by any otherofficer of Government of India or of the State Government,it shall be through ‘notification’.

OFFICER

He is usually a person who is authorized under lawto give direction to the Multi-State Cooperative andincludes the Central Registrar himself or his representative,the Chief Executive, the Collector of the District wherevercooperative law authorizes him to discharge a particularduty, a representative of the financing bank, an EnquiryOfficer appointed by the Central Registrar, an Auditorwho is authorized to have access to the books of accounts,Liquidator who can require a person entrusted with theduties of carrying out the day to day business of theMulti-State Cooperative to examine him on oath. Theofficer can summon record, ask the Chief Executive tocall the GB meeting, and can record his observations inthe Proceeding Book. Exigencies sometimes requiresupersession of the committee when it acts contrary tothe requirements of law. This very clause empowers theCentral Registrar to appoint a person in the capacity ofan administrator to manage the affairs of a Multi-Statecooperative. It can be challenged by anyone seeking aquo warranto. If the Multi-State Cooperative itself isaggrieved and has filed a petition, the writ petition ismaintainable. Basavaraj Vs. Kajjari Vyavasaya SevaSahkari Sangh ILR 1994 Karnataka 2709.

RESERVE BANK

It is the ‘Banker’s Bank’ for the development of soundbanking practices. It regulates the money market throughCRR, SLR, Repo Rate and Reverse Repo Rate from timeto time. It permits different types of financialaccommodations to banks whenever they take recourseto finances which are their most urgent needs.

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PRINCIPLE OF MUTUALITYWITH A JUDICIAL ANALYSIS AND TAXATION

—CA. Sunil Kumar Rastogi

CONCEPT OF MUTUALITY – INTRODUCTION

A mutual, mutual organization or mutual society isan organization (which is often, but not always, a companyor business) based on the principle of mutuality. Unlike atrue cooperative, members usually do not contribute tothe capital of the company by direct investment, but derivetheir right to profits and votes through their customerrelationship. A mutual organization or society is oftensimply referred to as a mutual.

NO PERSON CAN TRADE WITH HIMSELF AND NOPERSON CAN MAKE A PROFIT OUT OF HIMSELF

The old saying that a penny saved is a penny earnedmay be a lesson in household economics, but not for taxpurposes, since money saved cannot be treated as taxableincome. It is this principle, named as the principle ofmutuality, which is extended to a group of persons inrespect of dealings among themselves. Mutuality principleoffers a tax shelter, as long as its character of a mutualassociation is retained, with its income not tainted bycommerciality. A formal organization indicating mutualityas between members with bye-laws spelling out mutualitymay, however, be necessary as proof of claim to mutualityeither as a society or a company registered under Section25 of the Companies Act, 1956, or even as managed bya public trust, with such activities primarily intended to beconfined to its members.

The Principle of Mutuality is beneficially utilized bymutual concerns like members’ clubs, cooperativesocieties, mutual benefit funds or chit funds etc. wherethe persons form the concern or the association for thebenefit or advancement of certain mutual activities. Suchorganizations where the objectives are not of ‘GeneralPublic Utility’ and therefore their incomes are not eligiblefor exemption u/s 11 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 as thebenefits are available to only a ‘Class of Public’ insteadof ‘General Public’ take the shelter of Principle of Mutuality.Thus, in case the receipts of such a mutual associationexceed the expenses, then, on the footing of the principleof mutuality, such surplus is to be regarded as devoid ofrevenue quality, hence not taxable under the Act.

A JUDICIAL ANALYSIS AND TAXATION – IS INCOMETAX APPLICABLE TO SOCIETY FDs?

A Residential Society* collects funds from its

members and pays for common expenses from suchfunds. The society does not pay Income Tax for any excessof this income over expenses. This is allowed due to thePrinciple of Mutuality.

(*A Cooperative Housing Society (CHS) or an ApartmentOwners Association (AOA), Home Owners Association(HOA), Residential Welfare Association (RWA) or any suchAssociations registered under the Societies Act or anysubsidiary Act of Societies Act).

At the end of a financial year, any excess fund,typically termed as Reserve Fund, is invested in fixeddeposits with a bank, towards future exigencies. Same isdone with Corpus Fund, Sinking Fund, Repairs andMaintenance Fund etc. The bank pays annual interest onthese fixed deposits, like any other Fixed Deposits.

QUESTION: SHOULD INCOME TAX BE APPLICABLEON THE INTEREST PAID BY THE BANK FOR FIXEDDEPOSITS BY RESIDENTIAL SOCIETIES?

Answer: If you go by Supreme Court’s definition of“Principle of Mutuality” as clarified in below case, theanswer is YES.

Fact: In Mumbai almost every society has fixed depositswith Saraswat Cooperative Bank or District CooperativeBanks. The core benefit being interest on fixed depositsare exempted from TDS. However in Mumbai, thecooperative housing society (CHS) is also mandated tobecome members of the District Central Cooperative Bankof the district. The understandable purpose of thismembership is to bring the bank and the society underthe Concept of Mutuality.

In other Indian cities, this is not a well-known fact,nor is the society registered in the District CentralCooperative Bank, so as to utilize such benefits.Residential Societies open bank accounts in any bank asper their preference, including private banks.

SHOULD INTEREST ON SOCIETY FIXED DEPOSITSBE TAXABLE?

The Clarification of Supreme Court regarding Principleof Mutuality

A landmark judgment passed by Supreme Court on


14th January, 2013, gives great clarity on “Principles ofMutuality” under which the tax exemption of societies isalso justified.

The Case – M/s. Bangalore Club Vs. Commissioner ofIncome Tax (CIT)

The Bangalore Club (an Association of People, AOP)created fixed deposits with banks which are also membersof the club. It claimed that the interest earned on thesefixed deposits should be exempt from income tax, as theincome is subject to the Principle of Mutuality.Commissioner of Income Tax claimed to the contrary.

THE VERDICT OF THE SUPREME COURT

“In our opinion, unlike the surplus amount itself, whichis exempt from tax under the doctrine of mutuality, theamount of interest earned by the assessee (BangaloreClub) from the member banks will not fall within the ambitof the mutuality principle and will, therefore, be eligible toIncome Tax in the hands of the assessee club.

The surplus funds in the hands of the assessee(Bangalore Club) were placed at the disposal of thecorporate members viz. the banks, with the sole motiveto earn interest, which brings in the commerciality elementand thus, the interest so earned by the assessee has tobe treated as a revenue receipt, eligible to tax. It waspleaded that transactions between the assessee and themember banks concerned was in the nature of parking offunds by the assessee with a corporate member and wasnothing but what could have been done by a customer ofa bank and therefore, the principle that “no man couldtrade with himself” is not applicable”.

D.K.Jain and Jagdish Singh Khehar, JJ

THE REASONING

Three conditions must be satisfied, for an Income tobe Exempt on the Principle of Mutuality

(1) There must be a complete identity between thecontributors and participators.

(2) The actions of the participators and contributors mustbe in furtherance of the mandate of the association.

(3) There must be no scope of profiteering by thecontributors from a fund made by them which couldonly be expended or returned to themselves.

How this case violates all three Conditions?

(1) There must be a complete identity between thecontributors and participators

The arrangement lacks a complete identity between

the contributors and participators. Till the stage ofgeneration of surplus funds, the set-up resembledthat of mutuality; the flow of money, to and fro, wasmaintained within the closed circuit formed by thebanks and the club, and to that extent, nobody whowas not privy to this mutuality, benefitted from thearrangement. However, as soon as these funds wereplaced in fixed deposits with banks, the closed flowof funds between the banks and the club sufferedfrom deflections due to exposure to commercialbanking operations.

During the course of their operation of bankingbusiness, the member banks applied such depositsto advance loans to their various clients. Hence, inthe present case, with the funds of the mutuality,member banks engaged in commercial operationswith third parties outside of the mutuality, break the‘Privities of Mutuality’ and consequently, violating theone to one identity between the contributors andparticipators as mandated by the first condition. Thus,in the case before us the first condition for a claimof mutuality is not satisfied.

(2) The actions of the participators and contributorsmust be in furtherance of the mandate of theassociation

Once the fund of the club parked with member bankas fixed deposits, the surplus funds kept in thepossession of the member bank and were not usedfor any specific service, infrastructure, andmaintenance or for any other direct benefit for themember of the club. These were taken out ofmutuality when the member banks placed the sameat the disposal of third parties, thus, initiating anindependent contract between the bank and theclients of the bank, a third party, not privy to themutuality.

This contract lacked the degree of proximity betweenthe club and its member, which may in a distant andindirect way benefit the club; nonetheless, it cannotbe categorized as an activity of the club in pursuit ofits objectives. It needs little emphasis that the secondcondition postulates a direct step with direct benefitsto the functioning of the club. For the sake ofargument, one may draw remote connections withthe most brazen commercial activities to a club’sfunctioning. However, such is not the design of thesecond condition. Therefore, it stands violated.

(3) There must be no scope of profiteering by thecontributors from a fund made by them whichcould only be expended or returned tothemselves

The facts at hand also fail to satisfy the third conditionof the mutuality principle i.e. the impossibility that

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contributors should derive profits from contributionsmade by themselves to a fund which could only beexpended or returned to themselves. This principlerequires that the funds must be returned to thecontributors as well as expended solely on thecontributors. True, that in the present case, the fundsdo return to the club.

However, before that, they are expended on non—members i.e. the clients of the bank. Banks generaterevenue by paying a lower rate of interest to club-assessee, the makes deposits with them, and thenloan out the deposited amounts at a higher rate ofinterest to third parties. This loaning out of funds ofthe club by banks to outsiders for commercialreasons, in our opinion, snaps the link of mutualityand thus, breaches the third condition.

Note: This was a Case with a Club – an Associationof Persons. Can a Mutual Society also be a Charity?

In any mutual organisation, there is an element ofaltruism, since the benefit availed by a member may notalways be commensurate with his contribution. It was forthese reasons that even where there is no return on thecontribution, as in the case of an association formed forthe purpose of general public utility, mutuality may not belost. Such association may also be entitled to taxconcessions as a charitable institution as was found inAddl. CIT vs. Surat Silk Cloth Manufacturer’s Association10 and CIT vs. Andhra Chamber of Commerce.

In such cases, income from entrance fee,subscription and donations from members may begoverned by the principle of mutuality and any otherincome governed by the exemption from charitableinstitution. It is likely that both the shelters, whethermutuality principle and concessions meant for charitiessubject to conditions, may be available for the same entity.

Will the verdict be different for an Apartment OwnersAssociation or a Cooperative Housing Society?

An institution set-up with the object of promotingtrade or commerce is a charitable institution as it promotescommon good through enhancement of business.However, an institution which merely regulates orenhances the business of its members is not a charitableinstitution. Thus, where the properties of Hotels formedan association for obtaining articles on permit for supplyingthem to members and protecting their business interest,the association was held not to be a charitable one forthe purpose of the Act.

Transfer Fees received by cooperative housingsocieties from incoming and outgoing members up to limitsis exempt on the ground of mutuality.

In Walkeshwar Triveni Cooperative Housing Society88 ITD 159 (Mum)(SB), the Special Bench held that whiletransfer fees received from the transferor member wasexempt from tax on the ground of mutuality, transfer feesreceived from the transferee member was not exemptfrom tax on the ground that at the time of payment, hewas not a member of the society. In deciding crossappeals, held party reversing the judgments that:

(i) A cooperative housing society is a mutual associationand satisfies all the tests of mutuality. There is nocommerciality involved in it because it’s only activitiesare maintenance of its property and the subscriptionand or contributions received from its members canonly be extended for this purpose. Further, theparticipants and contributors are identifiable andbelong to the same class. The fact that only somemembers out of those who contributed mayparticipate in the surplus is irrelevant as long as theclass is identifiable.

(ii) Even transfer fees received from transferee membersis exempt on the ground of mutuality because thefee can be appropriated only if the transferee isadmitted to membership. If the transferee is notadmitted, the moneys will have to be refunded.

(iii) However, if an amount is received more than whatis chargeable under the bye-laws or Governmentdirections, the society is bound to repay the sameand if it retains the same it will be in the nature ofprofit making and that amount will be chargeable totax.

CONCLUSION

Mutuality principle offers a tax shelter, as long as itscharacter of a mutual association is retained, with itsincome not tainted by commerciality. A formal organizationindicating mutuality as between members with bye-lawsspelling out mutuality may, however, be necessary asproof of claims to mutuality either as a society or acompany registered under Section 25 of the CompaniesAct, 1956, or even as managed by a public trust, withsuch activities primarily intended to be confined to itsmembers.

(Courtesy: NIRC Newsletter, August, 2014)

Conserve WaterSave Life


LEGAL COLUMN*

* Compiled by Shri Tuhin, Advocate, Supreme Court.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA(BEFORE HON’BLE JUSTICES G.S. SINGHVI AND RANJANA PRAKASH DESAI, JJ)

Taranjeet Singh Mohan Singh Sawhney and Others ....AppellantsVs.District Deputy Registrar Cooperative Societies and Others ....Respondents

(CIVIL APPEAL NO. 4822 OF 2013)(ARISING OUT OF SLP(C) NO. 12037 OF 2013)

DECIDED ON 1ST JULY, 2013

GENERAL

This appeal is directed against order dated 20.2.2013by which the learned Single Judge of the Bombay HighCourt refused to stay the order passed by respondentNo.1 – District Deputy Registrar Cooperative Societies-cum-Competent Authority, Mumbai City (3)–cum–Competent Authority appointed under Section 5A of theMaharashtra Ownership Flats (Regulation of the Promotionof Construction, Sale, Management and Transfer) Act,1963.

ISSUE

Whether the manner in which the impugned orderwas passed by Respondent No. 1 by preponing the dateof hearing without ensuring service of notice on Appellantswas proper?

FACTS

Late Shri Mohan Singh (predecessor of theappellants) owned land measuring 4144.90 sq. mtrs.comprised in CTS Nos. 661 to 691 of Village Kole Kalyan,Taluka Andheri. On 16.10.1979, he entered into anagreement with respondent No.4 for sale of land measuring3762.45 sq. mtrs. After execution of the agreement,respondent No.4 constructed five buildings, which wereoccupied by the members of three Cooperative HousingSocieties, i.e., respondent Nos. 3, 5 and 6.

Due to non-payment of the amount in terms ofagreement dated 16.10.1979, the appellants, who are the

legal heirs of late Shri Mohan Singh, issued notice dated16.3.2005 and terminated agreement dated 16.10.1979.After four years, respondent No.5 approached theappellants for purchase of 702.341 sq. mts. out of theland owned by late Shri Mohan Singh. At the asking ofthe appellants, respondent No.5 produced the consent ofrespondent Nos. 3 and 6. Thereafter, the appellantsexecuted conveyance dated 25.8.2011 in favour ofrespondent No.5 and the developer – M/s. RahulConstructions. Although the appellants had terminatedagreement dated 16.10.1979, respondent No.3 enteredinto an agreement with M/s. Raja Constructions Company(M/s. Raja Builders) for redevelopment of the buildings of‘C’, ‘D’ and ‘E’ Wings. In furtherance of the agreemententered with M/s. Raja Builders, respondent No.3 filed anapplication in Form VII under Section 11(3) read withSection 11(4) of the 1963 Act and Rules 11, 12 and 13of the Maharashtra Ownership Flats (Regulation of thePromotion of Construction, Sale, Management andTransfer) Rules, 1964 and prayed for grant of a certificatefor unilateral execution of the conveyance deed.Respondent No.1 entertained the application and orderednotices to the appellants and respondent Nos. 4 to 6. Inhis reply dated 19.3.2012, appellant No.1 raised severalobjections to the maintainability of the application filed byrespondent No.3. In the first place, he pleaded that therelief of specific performance of the agreement can beobtained only from a Civil Court and respondent No.1 didnot have the jurisdiction to entertain the application. Healso pleaded that the applicant (respondent No.3 herein)does not have the locus to file the application becauseagreement dated 16.10.1979 executed by Shri MohanSingh in favour of respondent No.4 had already beenterminated. According to appellant No.1, he had alreadyexecuted an agreement with one of the Societies and

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M/s. Rahul Builders and, therefore, respondent No.3 wasnot entitled to seek execution of unilateral conveyance inrespect of 2507.62 sq. mts. land. Some of the noticesalso filed their affidavits. Thereafter, respondent No.3 filedrejoinder affidavit.

Respondent No.1 fixed the matter for hearing on23.1.2012, 27.2.2012, 7.3.2012, 13.3.2012, 19.3.2012,27.3.2012, 3.4.2012 and 17.4.2012. On 7.5.2012, the casewas adjourned for 15.5.2012 with a direction to theappellants to file written arguments. However, theappellants did not file written arguments and applied foradjournment. Thereupon, respondent No.1 adjourned thecase to 19.6.2012.

After sometime, he suo motu changed the date ofhearing from 19.6.2012 to 21.5.2012 and a notice to thiseffect was issued by his office on 16.5.2012. On 21.5.2012,respondent No.1 heard the arguments of the counsel forthe applicant and closed the matter. He finally decidedthe application vide order dated 12.6.2012.

The appellants challenged the aforesaid order in WritPetition No.10287/2012. One of the grounds taken by theappellants was that respondent No.1 unilaterally changedthe date of hearing and finally decided the matter withoutensuring service of notice issued to the parties about thechanged date of hearing. Along with the writ petition, theappellants filed an application for interim stay. The learnedSingle Judge took cognizance of the assertion made inthe writ petition that notice of preponement of the date ofhearing was not served upon them, but refused to grantstay on the ground that the writ petition was filed afterfour months of the order passed by respondent No.1 andduring the intervening period conveyance deed had alreadybeen registered for a sum of Rs.95 lakhs and the Societyand respondent No.3 had entered into developmentagreements with builders.

HELD

The Hon’ble Supreme Court, after examining thefacts of the case came to the following conclusion:

– By producing xerox copies of the receipt of speedpost and two communications dated 15.2.2013 sentby Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, MumbaiCity (North) to Ms. Pritha Dave, respondent No.3has made an attempt to show that the appellantshad been informed about the changed date ofhearing, but we have not felt convinced. In the firstplace, the justification offered for preponement ofthe date of hearing is too weak to be accepted. It is

neither the pleaded case of respondent Nos. 1 and3 nor it has been argued before us that theapplication filed by respondent No.3 was the onlyone dealt with by the officer concerned. Rather, theassertion contained in the counter filed by respondentNo.1 before the High Court shows that large numberof similar cases were handled by the officer.Therefore, it can be presumed that he was aware ofthe imperative to decide the application within sixmonths. Notwithstanding this, respondent No.1 fixedlarge number of cases on 19.6.2012. Why he did sohas not been explained. Why he singled out theapplication of respondent No.3 for preponing the dateof hearing has also not been explained. Therefore,it is reasonable to infer that the action of respondentNo.1 to prepone the date of hearing of the applicationwas founded on extraneous reasons and was totallyunwarranted and unjustified.

– Secondly, the documents produced before this Courtunmistakably show that notice issued to the appellantsto apprise them about the changed date of hearingwas not delivered to them. The statement made inparagraph (Z) of the counter affidavit filed byrespondent No.1 substantially supports the appellants’assertion that they had not received intimation aboutpreponement of the date of hearing. It also belies theassertion of respondent No.3 that notice was deliveredto the appellants before the date of hearing, i.e.,21.5.2012. If the notice had been duly served uponthe appellants, then respondent No.1 would haveproduced the receipt of delivery. His failure to do soleads to an irresistible inference that the appellantswere not made aware of the fact that the date ofhearing had been changed from 19.6.2012 to21.5.2012. The documents produced by respondentNo.3 do not help us in resolving the controversyregarding service of notice on the appellants. Thecontents of these documents only adds to theconfusion. If the second letter dated 15.2.2013 sentby the Senior Superintendent of Post Office wasdelivered on 22.5.2012 then we have no option but tohold that the notice issued by the office of respondentNo.1 was delivered to the addressee on 22.5.2012,i.e., one day after the date fixed for hearing.

As a corollary to the above findings, it must be heldthat order dated 12.6.2012 passed by respondent No.1 isvitiated due to violation of the rule of audi alteram partemand is liable to be set aside.

Note : Please write to NCHF Secretariat for copy of abovejudgment, if required.


SNIPPETSCONSULTATION ON REAL ESTATE BILL

The Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation,Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu has emphasized the need toremove the ‘mistrust’ among the developers and buyersto enable the growth and development of real estate sectorthat has huge employment potential. He said so whilespeaking at the ‘Stakeholders Consultation on Real Estate(Development and Regulation) Bill and Single WindowApproval System’ on 19th September, 2014 at New Delhi.The Ministry of HUPA has organized the consultation tosolicit views and suggestions on the Bill.

Shri Naidu said the Government does not intend toadd one more ‘table’ to the many that already exist in thetrail of obtaining necessary approval and on the contraryseeks to simplify the approval process by taking the Stateson board. He asserted that the Bill does not indulge inover regulation of the sector.

The Hon’ble Minister clarified that the Bill will bringmore credibility to the sector in the lines of Telecom,Securities, Insurance, Electricity etc. and it will ensuretransparency and accountability to the benefit of bothdevelopers and consumers. The Bill also enables speedyadjudication of disputes between the buyers, agents anddevelopers. It also enables professionalism andstandardization of transactions in the real estate sector.

Shri Naidu observed that there is a ‘New Hope’ witha sense of enthusiasm under the leadership of PrimeMinister Shri Narendra Modi and the private developersin Real Estate Sector have to play their due role to enablepeople realise their ‘New Hope’ of acquiring houseownership by the year 2022. The Minister said that thetask of ensuring housing for all cannot be met byGovernment alone and private sector has to play a majorrole and hence, the Government is keen to ensure thatthe Bill enables the growth of real estate sector throughnecessary enabling measures.

Ms.Anita Agnihotri, Secretary (HUPA) assured thestakeholders that all suggestions would be given seriousconsideration before the Government firmed up the officialamendments to be moved, if required.

Outlining the scope of the Bill, Shri K.B.S. Siddhu,Joint Secretary, Ministry of HUPA said that the Bill providesfor mandatory registration of all projects beyond a specifiedthreshold level besides mandatory disclosure of informationlike details of promoters, layout plan, land status, scheduleof execution, status of various approvals, carpet area. Hefurther said the Bill seeks to enforce the contract between

the developer and buyer and provides for quick remedialmeasures in case of disputes. (PIB)

TRAINING PROGRAMME ON ACCOUNTING &MANAGEMENT OF COOPERATIVE HOUSINGSOCIETIES

A Training Programme on ‘Accounting &Management of Cooperative Housing Societies’ for thepersonnel of housing cooperatives especially those dealingin Accounts and Audit was organized by the NationalCooperative Housing Federation of India in collaborationwith the Committee for Cooperatives and NPO Sectors ofthe Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI),National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) and Instituteof Cooperative Management (ICM) from 20-23rd August,2014 at Dehradun.

The Programme was inaugurated by CA ShivajiBhikaji Zaware, Vice-Chairman, Committee forCooperatives and NPO Sectors and Member of CentralCouncil, ICAI. In his Inaugural Address, CA Zawareshowered praises for the commendable work done by

Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Hon'ble Minister of Housing & Urban PovertyAlleviation addressing the Multi-Stakeholder Consultations on SingleWindow Approval System and Real Estate (Regulation & Development)Bill.

A view of the participants.

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housing cooperatives. He said that housing cooperativesare meeting the basic need of quality housing throughcooperative efforts. Their management and control isdemocratic and membership is voluntary by the people,for the people for mutual benefits.

He briefly touched upon the functioning of varioustypes of housing cooperatives across the country andstated that their primary objective is basically to share,care and dare together. While stating that housingcooperatives are not a business enterprise or a commercialenterprise as there is no motive of business or profit, hesaid better management is required for their expensesand the income which results in surplus is not a profit butfor the future development, he added.

CA Zaware further said that method of accountingplays a very important role in maintenance of accounts.While informing that the Accounting Standard Board ofICAI has issued 32 Accounting Standards so far, he saidthat maintaining accounts with respect to AccountingStandards will be useful and may also be applied byhousing cooperatives. He also touched upon some aspectsof direct taxes. While discussing various legal issuesarising in the functioning of housing cooperatives, heappealed to the office bearers to always keep legaldocumentation in order as they are the trustees of housingcooperatives.

On this occasion, he also highlighted the activitiesand achievements of ICAI. He assured continued supportof ICAI as well as the Committee for Cooperatives andNPO Sectors to NCHF for training programmes. He saidthat ICAI has already provided expert Faculty who willably guide the participants.

CA Sanjay Gupta, Chairman, Dehradun Branch ofICAI also addressed the participants. He said thatcooperative movement is comparatively weak in the Stateof Uttarakhand. All the stake holders should contributetheir bit to promote cooperatives especially housingcooperatives. There is need to devise ways and meansfor the promotion and proper development of cooperativemovement so as to improve the living standards of theneedy peole.

CA Parimal Patet, Secretary and CA Praveen K.Goyal, Treasurer, Dehradun Branch of ICAI also gracedthe inaugural function

Earlier, Shri N.S. Mehara, Director, NCHF briefedabout the training programme and welcomed thedignitaries and the participants on behalf of the ManagingDirector, NCHF. Dr Ajay Sharma, Senior Faculty, Instituteof Cooperative Management, Dehradun proposed a voteof thanks at the inaugural function.

The inaugural function was followed by nineTechnical Sessions of the Training Programme.

CA Chandrashekhar V. Chitale from Pune deliveredlectures and made presentations on various topics viz.Income Tax, Service Tax and VAT Compliances forCooperative Housing Societies; Financial Statements,Analysis of Financial Statements and Ratio; and RiskManagement in Cooperative Housing Societies.

Shri Mohanraj Y., Ex-Manager, Karnataka Bank Ltd.& Founder, Pangal Computer Services Pvt. Limited,Mumbai, delivered talks and made presentation onAccounting in Cooperative Housing Societies-Guidancefor Journal Entries, Trial Balance & Ledgers; Management;Process of Accounting; Overview of Accounting Software(Society123.com); Accounting for Assets and Liabilities inCooperative Housing Societies.

CA Milind Gramopadhye from Pune made a detailedpresentation on Accounting for Income and Expenses inCooperative Housing Societies – Revenue, Capital andDeferred Receipts & Deferred Expenditure.

CA Mohit Jain from Dehradun delivered a talk onImportance of Internal Control, Internal Audit, AuditCompliance in Cooperative Housing Societies andimportant issues related to their Audit.

Shri V. Alagupandian, Faculty, ICM made a briefpresentation on ‘Journey Towards the Excellence’ therebyexplaining the functioning, achievements, courses offeredand infrastructure available with ICM. Shri Sachin Sawant,Senior Accounting Executive, Apartment Adda, Mumbaialso made a demonstration of their portal for Billing &Accounting.

The participants took active part in the opendiscussions during each of the Technical Sessions andraised important issues. They shared their knowledge andexperience and also brought to the notice of Facultyvarious problems faced by them in their functioning. TheFaculty replied all the queries of the participants to theirsatisfaction.

On 22nd August, 2014, the participants visited theSainik Cooperative Housing Society, Defence Colony,Dehradun. They were received by the office bearers andother members of the Management Committee. Theparticipants were taken around the residential complex ofthe Society for firsthand experience about the housingand other facilities provided to the members. Later on Col(Retd) S.L.Panuly, Chairman gave a brief presentation onthe functioning and achievements of the Society. TheSainik Cooperative Housing Society having 769 memberswas registered in the year 1967. It is spread in total area


of approximately 184 acres out of which one-third is greenarea. It has efficient waste management system and ownarrangements for street lights, water supply, internal roads,etc. The Society has a wide range of well developedcommunity facilities including DAV Public School,Community Hall, Bank Branch, Sub Post Office, ShoppingComplex, Medical Room, Police Chauki, CSDCanteen, etc. The Society is self contained in its allrequirements as it has never been financed by the StateGovernment.

In the concluding session, Shri Bhunwar Singh,Director I/c, Institute of Cooperative Management (ICM)addressed the participants and expressed the hope thatthe learning during the training programme will come handyin improving work efficiency of the participants and theirrespective organizations. He also thanked NCHF and ICAIfor organizing such an important programme in Dehradun.

In all, 35 participants including the faculty attendedthe Training Programme. The programme was concludedwith a vote of thanks extend by Shri N.S. Mehara to theFaculty, participants and host organization i.e. the ICM.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR THE POOR

In sync with one of the key policy initiatives to providehousing to the urban poor, the Government is planning toexpand the net of affordable housing to include morepeople under the various housing projects targeted atEconomically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Lower IncomeGroup (LIG).

The proposal drafted by the Ministry of Housing andUrban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) raises the eligibility barfor affordable housing for families from EWS with a monthlyincome of less than Rs. 16,000 as opposed to the currentcap of Rs. 8,000.

For LIGs, the income ceiling for families eligible forthe scheme has been increased from Rs.16,000 toRs.25,000. “The ceiling has been revised as we foundthat lack of financial inclusion of the urban poor was oneof the key reasons for non take-off of old housingschemes,” said a source.

Affordable housing is a huge requirement for theEWS and LIG categories. A recent report by the Ministryof HUPA said that of the total shortage of 18.78 millionhouses in the country, 10.55 million houses were neededby EWS and 7.41 million houses by the LIG category.

The Ministry has also proposed that while allottinghouses, preference would be given to not only widowsand the SC/ST categories but also to transgender whohave presently been left out of welfare programmes.

The proposal is part of the Ministry’s new HomeOwners’ Mortgage Equity Subvention Scheme (HOMES).Under the scheme, the loan limit has been raised fromRs. 5 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh for EWS and from Rs. 8 lakhto Rs. 15 lakh for the LIG category, along with a 5.5%interest subsidy on these loans.

(THE HINDUSTAN TIMES, 19TH AUGUST, 2014)

RBI RECOMMENDS HOME LOAN DEPOSITS

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) feels there is a needfor financial innovation with respect to home loan productsand one such product could be savings-induced homeloan or a home loan deposit, Deputy Governor, Shri R.Gandhi said . “Customers may be induced to generate asavings balance by way of monthly or periodic deposits.This will enable creation of track record for repayment offuture home loan product. Once a customer reaches athreshold balance, the financial institution can considersanctioning housing loan,” he said in a speech at a realestate conclave in Mumbai.

The balance in the particular account could act as acollateral and the monthly amount deposited could act asa base to assess the repayment capacity of the customer,Shri Gandhi added.

Speaking on the sidelines, he said that the finalguidelines with respect to the payment and differentiatedbanks would be issued within 2014-15. On whether IndiaPost would be given banking license, he said it was forthe Government to approve if it could approach the RBIfor a licence. (THE HINDUSTAN TIMES, 21ST AUGUST, 2014)

INFRASTRUCTURE STATUS FOR HOUSING SECTORSOUGHT

The chronic housing shortage in India requires reformsin the banking sector and investment policies to achievethe Government’s vision of ‘Housing for all’ by 2022.“Currently, bank’s exposure to the realty sector is only5 per cent and is way too small,” the President of theNational Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO),Shri Sunil Mantri, told a press conference, adding thatinternationally, it was between 20 per cent and 25 per cent.

He said the sector had been facing a liquidity crunchand investment in the housing sector would have positiveimpact on the entire economy. NAREDCO has put forwardan agenda that it expects will help developersraise investments as also promote low-cost housing. Firstly,an infrastructure status must be granted to the sector andthe interest rate on retail loans should be brought down to7 per cent. Besides, loans should be provided for acquiringland when it is used for affordable housing under theReserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines for prioritisation of

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home loans. Also, External Commercial Borrowings (ECB)should be allowed for the housing sector.

On Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the sector,Shri Mantri said that between 2008 and 2014, around$953 billion was invested in the real estate sector. Ofthis, household (personal savings and other borrowings)have contributed 72 per cent, institutional lending, includinghome loans (by banks and housing finance companies),accounted for 18 per cent followed by Government, equityraising (private equity and capital markets) and privatesector contributing 3 per cent each. Overall, the real growthof investments in the sector had been less than 2 percent in the last few years, he said.

(THE HINDU, 14TH AUGUST, 2014)

SUPREME COURT ORDERS BUILDER TO REPAYRS.33 CRORE MAINTENANCE FEES

Dealing a blow to builders who don't deliver onpromises, the Supreme Court has asked a developer inGurgaon to refund residents Rs.33.38 crore — 70% ofthe maintenance fees it had collected since 2002 - forfailing to provide the amenities it had committed to at thetime of purchase.

A Bench of Justices V. Gopala Gowda and AdarshKumar Goel upheld a March 19 ruling of the NationalConsumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC)directing the developers of Ambience Lagoon Apartmentsto refund 70% of the total maintenance money collectedover 11 years to 345 flat owners for failing to offer servicescommensurate with the maintenance charged.

There are 15 blocks in Ambience LagoonApartments, located behind Ambience Mall on NH8. Atthe time of allotment of flats, the buyers were promisedone lift for every 10 flats. But in most blocks, only two liftswere provided instead of the four promised.

In November 2004, 66 residents of Ambience Lagoonmoved court against Raj Singh Gehlot and his company,Ambience Pvt. Ltd, for poor maintenance of lifts. Thecase dragged on, and finally, on 19th March, 2014, theNCDRC passed its judgment.

The company moved the Supreme Court, but theappeal was rejected on the merit of the case by the ApexCourt.

In the Apartments, even the lifts which were installedwere not repaired once in 11 years. Due to lack ofmaintenance there have been instances where theelevators have come to a stop after falling freely for severalfloors, thus putting lives of the residents at risk. Thoughthe litigation was only about the poor maintenance of lifts,

the Court took cognizance of the broader fact that thebuilder was not serious about taking care of the projectdespite collecting maintenance regularly.

Depending on the size of the flat, each resident willnow get back anything between Rs.6 lakh and Rs.15 lakh.

(THE TIMES OF INDIA, 3RD SEPTEMBER, 2014)

DAUGHTERS ENTITLED TO FAMILY PROPERTY:BOMBAY HIGH COURT

Giving a crucial judgment on women’s rights overancestral property, a full Bench of the Bombay High Courthas held that daughters alive on September 9, 2005, wouldbe entitled to equal rights in ancestral property. The HinduSuccession Act of 1956 did not give equal right in ancestralproperty to daughters. This disparity was removed by anamendment to Section 6 of the Act in September, 2005.But a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court heldpreviously that only those daughters born after September9, 2005, will be entitled to equal rights in ancestral property.

Later, a Single Judge of the Bombay High Courtcontested this view and held that even those daughterswho were born before September 2005 will have equalrights. The matter was then referred to a full Bench of theCourt. On 14th August, 2014, a full Bench comprisingChief Justice Mohit Shah, M.S. Sanklecha and M.S. Sonakheld that “Section 6 of Hindu Succession Act, 1956 asamended by the Amendment Act of 2005 is retroactive(taking effect from a date in the past) in operation.”

Denying that the reference of Supreme Courtjudgments given by the respondents held an oppositeview, the Judges observed: “The principle laid down bythe Supreme Court in Sheeladevi’s case, therefore, doesnot militate against the view taken by us that theAmendment Act of 2005 applies to a daughter ofcoparcener, who (the daughter) is born before 9September, 2005 and alive on 9 September, 2005, onwhich date the Amendment Act of 2005 came into force.Of course, there is no dispute about the entitlement ofdaughter born on or after 9th September, 2005.”

Coparcener is a person who shares equally withothers in the inheritance of an undivided estate or in theright to it.

After deliberating on the provisions of the amendedSection 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, the Court said inits order that the daughters would be able to exercisetheir right only after September, 2005, when the Act wasamended.

“Therefore, it is imperative that the daughter whoseeks to exercise such a right must herself be alive at the


time when the Amendment Act, 2005 was brought intoforce. It would not matter whether the daughter concernedis born before 1956 or after 1956. This is for the simplereason that the Hindu Succession Act 1956 when it cameinto force applied to all Hindus in the country irrespectiveof their date of birth. The date of birth was not a criterionfor application of the Principal Act. The only requirementis that when the Act is being sought to be applied, theperson concerned must be in existence/ living,” the Courtsaid in its order. (THE HINDU, 15TH AUGUST, 2014)

BUILDER TO PAY HOUSING SOCIETY RS.32 LAKHSTOWARDS COST OF REPAIRS

A builder was recently directed to pay Rs.32 lakhsto a housing society after several defects were found inthe building in Santa Cruz, Mumbai soon after possessionwas given in 2002.

Of the total amount to be paid by Pattathu Brothers,Rs.19.76 lakhs is the reimbursement for the expenditureincurred by the Arunodaya Cooperative Housing Societyon repairing the defective amenities and the remainingRs.2.44 lakhs is the interest on it.

The Maharashtra State Consumer DisputesRedressal Commission, which passed the order, said:“Execution of agreement entails obligation on the builderto deliver promised and defect-free possession of the flatalong with the common amenities. This cannot be a pointof dispute especially when the complainants have paidthe entire amount as per the agreement.” The Commissionalso directed the builder to execute the deed ofconveyance and transfer the right, title and interest in thebuilding and land to the society in four months.

The Commission refuted the argument of the builderthat the original landlord should be made party to thecomplaint. It said: “Since the privity of contract existsbetween the flat purchasers and the opponent, the societyneed not be compelled to approach the original landlordswith whom complaints are totally unconcerned. It is thepromoter to take such effective steps to discharge statutoryobligation for conveyance of the property and building.”

The society had filed the complaint through lawyerVinod Sampat in 2007. (TNN, 14TH AUGUST, 2014)

DELHI SEES A DECLINE IN THE NUMBER OF SLUMDWELLERS

While the city has been witnessing an unprecedentedincrease in unauthorised colonies over the past few years,the number of slum dwellers in Delhi has decreased. As perthe 2011 Census, the number of slum dwellers in the Capitaldecreased by around 2.5 lakh during the past decade.

“People living in slum areas of Delhi have declinedby 2,44,365 between 2001 and 2011. Delhi ranks ninthamong 35 States and Union Territories with a slumpopulation of 17,85,390 as per 2011 Census as against20,29,755 in 2001,” said Union Urban DevelopmentMinister Venkaiah Naidu in a written reply to the LokSabha. (THE HINDU, 7TH AUGUST, 2014)

HIMACHAL IS 3RD CLEANEST STATE IN INDIA

After literacy, Himachal Pradesh has won laurels forits cleanliness. The State has been placed third amongthe cleanest States of India after Sikkim and Manipurwhich are first and second respectively. This achievementwas high-lighted in a Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan survey report.According to the survey report, the award is also due tothe fact that 56 percent houses in the State own theirown toilets.

Himachal Pradesh has improved its position as seenin the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan survey report. The missionfor cleanliness has been launched in the State with thehelp of voluntary organizations, youth clubs anddevelopment blocks.

(MAIL TODAY, 18TH AUGUST, 2014)

BSHF REPORT ON AWARD WINNING ‘SOUTH-SOUTHCOOPERATION’ PROGRAMME

The Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF)of the United Kingdom has launched a new report –showcasing the work of the project, ‘South-SouthCooperation’: international transfer of FUCVAM model ofmutual aid housing cooperatives’, winner of the 2012 worldHabitat Award. The report is available free to downloadfrom the BSHF website.

This report introduces the FUCVAM approach andalso includes information about the BSHF funded peerexchange which took place in Montevideo, Uruguay inSeptember, 2013.

The South-South Cooperation project was initiatedin 2001 to support the dissemination of the cooperativehousing movement in Uruguay to other countries in theregion and around the world. It aims to transfer the modeland to collaborate in adapting it to local conditions indifferent contexts, helping to overcome any difficulties thatarise, and developing a sustainable process with a long-term vision.

The impact of the project has been significant, directlyand indirectly enabling hundreds of thousands of peopleacross Latin America to have access to decent housingas well as other opportunities for income generation andsocial development.

(BSHF NEWS)

48 NCHF BULLETIN

vkokl foRr fuxe us 43-60 djksM+ :i;s dk fjdkWMZykHk dek;k

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o vU; ljdkjh dfeZ;ksa dks vkokl [kjhnus ds fy, ½.kij yxus okys C;kt ij 0-5 izfr'kr dh fo'ks"k NwV nsrkgSA bl izdkj fuxe us vkokl ds {ks=k esa c<+kok nsus dsfy, u;s dhfrZeku LFkkfir fd, gSa vkSj 'kk;n xzqi gkmflaxdks c<+kok nsus ds {ks=k esa dk;Z dj jgs fuxeksa ds chp½.k ij C;kt ij lcls vf/d ykHk dekus okyk ns'k dkigyk fuxe gSA mUgksaus dgk fd fnYyh ljdkj dh bllgdkjh vkokl foRr fuxe esa 96 izfr'kr ldy fgLlsnkjhgSA mUgksaus dgk fd fnYyh ljdkj ds vkns'kksa dks ekurs gq,fuxe lLrh njksa ij vke vknfe;ksa dks ?kj eqgS;k djkus dsfy, ½.k nsrk gSA

(jk"Vªh; lgkjk] 9 flrEcj] 2014)

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,ulh,p,iQ dk;kZy; esa fgUnh iz;ksx izksRlkgu ekl

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,e- osadS;k uk;MqM. VENKAIAH NAIDU

'kgjh fodkl rFkkvkokl vkSj 'kgjh xjhch mi'keu ea=kh

Hkkjr ljdkjfuekZ.k Hkou] ubZ fnYyh&110011

MINISTERURBAN DEVELOPMENT &

HOUSING AND URBAN POVERTY ALLEVIATIONGOVERNMENT OF INDIA

NIRMAN BHAWAN, NEW DELHI-110011

lR;eso t;rs

lans'k

vkt 14 flrEcj dks fganh fnol ds volj ij vki lHkh dks esjh gkfnZd 'kqHkdkeuk,aA vki lc tkursgSa fd gekjs ns'k dh lafo/ku lHkk us blh fnu vFkkZr 14 flrEcj] 1949 dks fganh dks la?k dh jktHkk"kkds :i esa vaxhdkj fd;k FkkA gekjs lafo/ku fuekZrkvksa dh vkdka{kk Fkh fd Lora=krk ds ckn ns'k dk 'kklugekjh viuh Hkk"kkvksa esa pys rkfd vke turk 'kklu ls tqM+h jgs vkSj lekt esa ,d lkeatL; LFkkfir gksvkSj lc dh izxfr gks ldsA

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(,e- osadS;k uk;Mq)

50 NCHF BULLETIN

,d fjiksVZ ds eqrkfcd 2031 rd Hkkjr esa 'kgjksa vkSj dLcksadh vkcknh 60 djksM+ igqapus dh laHkkouk gSA

fjiksVZ esa crk;k x;k gS fd vxys 20 lkyksa ds nkSjkuns'k esa 'kgjh vk/kjHkwr lajpuk esa 827 vjc MkWyj rdds fuos'k dh t:jr gksxhA blesa ls nks frgkbZ iSlk 'kgjhlM+dksa vkSj ;krk;kr <kaps dks nq:Lr djus ij yxsxkAvFkZO;oLFkk vkSj i;kZoj.k ij oSf'od vk;ksx dh ^U;wDykbesV bdksukWeh* fjiksVZ esa dgk x;k gS fd fiNys nksn'kdksa ds nkSjku Hkkjr dh 'kgjh vkcknh 21 djksM+ 70 yk[kls c<+dj 37 djksM+ 70 yk[k gks pqdh gSA 2031 rd blds60 djksM+ rd igqapus dh mEehn gSA ;g 2031 dh vkcknhdk 40 izfr'kr gksxhA fjiksVZ esa dgk x;k gS fd Hkkjr 'kgjhØkafUr ds dxkj ij gSA 'kgjhdj.k dk ekStwnk pyu 'kgjksads ckgjh bykdksa esa foLrkj ik jgk gSA blesa dkiQh dqNxSj fu;ksftr rjhds ls rFkk 'kgjh ekinaMksa vkSj mi fu;eksads nk;js ls ckgj gks jgk gSA vkcknh ds bl vHkwriwoZ foLrkjls LFkkuh; fudk;ks ij lalk/uksa dh deh ds chp Hkkjh cks>ogu djuk iM+rk gSA (fgUnqLrku] 18 flrEcj- 2014)

isa'ku&xzsP;qVh jksdus ij lqizhe dksVZ l[r

lqizhe dksVZ us dgk gS fd isa'ku vkSj xzsP;qVh dh vnk;xhesa vuko';d nsjh ij fu;ksDrk dks lewph jde C;kt lfgrnsuh gksxhA csotg nsjh ds fy;s fu;ksDrk ftEesnkj gSA blfy,vnkyr isa'ku vkSj xzsP;qVh dh jde dk Hkqxrku djus ds fy;sfu;ksDrk dks C;kt lfgr /ujkf'k nsus ds fy, foo'k djldrh gSA vnkyr }kjk fu/kZfjr le; ds vanj isa'kuxr ykHkdk Hkqxrku u djus ij isuYVh baVjsLV ns; gksxkA tfLVl nhidfeJ vkSj oh- xksiky xMk dh csap us fjVk;MZ bathfu;j dhisa'ku vkSj xzsP;qVh jksdus ij mRrj gfj;k.kk fctyh forj.kfuxe dks Ng lIrkg ds vanj leLr isa'kuxr ykHk 9 izfr'krC;kt lfgr nsus dks dgk gSA vxj Ng gÝrs dh fu/kZfjrvof/ ds nkSjku /ujkf'k dk Hkqxrku ugha fd;k tkrk rksforj.k fuxe dks 18 iQhln dh nj ls naMkRed C;kt nsukgksxkA lqizhe dksVZ us dgk fd csotg isa'ku vkSj xzsP;qVh jksdusds dkj.k lsokfuo`r deZpkjh C;kt lfgr jde ikus dk gdnkjgks tkrk gSA fjVk;MZdehZ dks C;kt dh jde iznku u djukxSj&dkuwuh gSA lqizhe dksVZ us dsjy cuke ,e- in~Hkkue uk;jdsl dk [kklrkSj ij ftØ fd;k ftlesa lqizhe dksVZ us isa'kurFkk xzsP;qVh vkfn dh jde dh vnk;xh esa vojks/ iSnk djus

ij C;kt dh vnk;xh dks vfuok;Z dgk FkkA lqizhe dksVZ usiatkc vkSj gfj;k.kk gkbZ dksVZ ds iQSlys dks iyV fn;kA gkbZdksVZ dh ,dy vkSj [kaMihB us ;kph dks isa'ku rFkk xzsP;qVhdh jde dk Hkqxrku djus dk vkns'k fn;k Fkk ysfdu fcukfdlh C;kt dsA

lqizhe dksVZ us Mh-Mh- frokjh ds okfjlksa dh ;kfpdk ij;g fu.kZ; fn;kA frokjh mRrj gfj;k.kk fctyh forj.k fuxeesa vxLr 1968 ls dk;Zjr FksA og 31 vDVwcj] 2006 dkstwfu;j bathfu;j ds in ls fjVk;j gq,A og VªkaliQkeZlZ dsbapktZ FksA ukSdjh ds nkSjku mu ij VªkaliQkeZlZ rFkk mlesa rsydh xM+cM+h dk vkjksi yxk;k FkkA ysfdu tkap esa vkjksifujk/kj ik, x,A fiQj Hkh lsokfuo`fr ds ykHk jksd fy, x,Alsokfuo`fr ds le; muds f[kykiQ fdlh rjg dh vuq'kklfudtkap yafcr ugha FkhA isa'ku u feyus ij ;kph us gkbZdksVZ dknjoktk [kV[kVk;kA gkbZdksVZ dh ,dy ihB us rhu ekg esaewy /ujkf'k ds Hkqxrku dk vkns'k fn;kA [kaaMihB us C;ktlfgr jde ds Hkqxrku ds vkxzg dks Bqdjk fn;kA dsl isafMaxgksus ds nkSjku frokjh dh ekSr gks xbZA blds ckn mudsmRrjkf/dkfj;ksa us vnkyrh yM+kbZ yM+hA lqizhe dksVZ us gkbZdksVZ ds nksuksa iQSlyks ls vlgefr O;Dr dhA csap us dgkfd C;kt dk vkns'k u nsdj gkbZdksVZ us ;kph ds lkFk vU;k;fd;kA (jk"Vªh; lgkjk] 5 vxLr] 2014)

problems of affordable housing. An Action Plan need tobe formulated on a sustainable mode for affordablehousing in every city. The NCHF and leading ACHFs maytake the leadership in formulation of Action Plan,acquisition of land, mobilization of resources andimplementation of programme. This would not only boostthe credibility of housing cooperatives but also bring smilesof happiness in the millions of needy families belonging toEWS/LIG categories. The housing cooperatives must takethe call.

CONCLUSION

India is the land of unity amidst diversity. Innovationis the hallmark of its plans and programmes formulatedfor brining about socio-economic development. As housingis one of the basic needs, convergence of all stake-holdersin mobilization of resources, implementation of plan andprogrammes for affordable housing would go a long wayin accomplishment of the objective. Housing for all let usstrive to achieve the goal by synergy and by sincereendeavours and of all the stake-holders. The goal isachievable and must be achieved at any cost.

(Contd. from Page 32)


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lnL; ds vf/dkj

& fdlh lgdkjh lfefr ds izR;sd lnL; dks oksV nsus vkSjlfefr ds fØ;kdykiksa esa Hkkx ysus dk iwjk vf/dkjgksrk gS Hkys gh mlus fdrus gh 'ks;j D;ksa u [kjhnsa gksaA

& mls izca/ lfefr rFkk vU; lfefr;ksa dh lnL;rk dkpquko yM+us dk vf/dkj gSA

& mls lgdkfjrk ds mifu;e cukus vkSj@;k muesala'kks/u esa Hkkx ysus dk vf/dkj gSA

& mls lgdkfjrk dh cSBdksa ds dk;Zo`Rr ikus] ys[kkvkssa vkSjys[kk fjiksVksZa dh tkap djus rFkk mu ij fVIi.kh djusdk vf/dkj gSA

& mls cSBdksa dh ppkZvksa esa Hkkx ysus rFkk lgdkfjrkds fgr esa vko';d le>s x;s lq>ko nsus dk vf/dkjgSA

& lfefr dh okf"kZd lk/kj.k lHkk ;k fdlh vU; cSBdds le{k j[ks tkus okyh dk;Z&lwph (,tsaUMk) esa dfri;eqn~ns 'kkfey djus ds fy, vuqjks/ djus dk vf/dkjgSA

& vxj fdlh ,d dks NksM+dj lHkh lnL; cgqer ls fdlhdkjZokbZ ds izfr lger gSa rks muls fHkUu er j[kus okyklnL; viuk ,rjkt O;Dr dj ldrk gS rFkk vius,rjkt dks dk;Zo`r esa ntZ djk ldrk gSA

& vxj mls lgdkfjrk dh lR;fu"Bk vkSj e;kZnk dks ysdjfdlh izdkj dk lansg gS rks mls lk/kj.k lHkk dhvkikrdkyhu cSBd cqykus dk iwjk vf/dkj gksxk ysfdu,slk rHkh laHko gksxk tc mlds izLrko dk ,d fuf'prla[;k esa lnL;ksa us leFkZu fd;k gksA

& mls vè;{k ;k izca/ lfefr ds fdlh lnL; dks vU;lnL;ksa lfgr gVkus ds fy, vkokt mBkus dk ml fLFkfresa vf/dkj gksxk tc fd og le>rk gks fd og ;klHkh fofgr@vuqcaf/r 'kfDr;ksa ls ckgj dk;Z dj jgs gSarFkk mlds@muds dke }kjk lgdkfjrk dks fdlh Hkhizdkj dk uqdlku igqap jgk gSA

& mls ml fLFkfr esa lacaf/r izkf/dkjh ds le{k vihydjus dk vf/dkj gksxk tc mls ;g irk pyrk gS ikfjrladYiksa ds mik; vkSj dk;ZokbZ lgdkjh lfefr ds fgrksads fo:¼ gSA

& mls mifu;eksa esa fofgr dh xbZ mis{kkvksa ds vuqlkjuksfVl nsus ds ckn lfefr dh lnL;rk okil ysus dkvf/dkj gksxkA

& mls vko';d jkf'k;ksa dk Hkqxrku djus ds ckn vkokllgdkfjrk ds ifjlj esa ,d edku] IykV] ÝySV ijdCtk ysus dk vf/dkj gksxkA

52 NCHF BULLETIN

& mls lfefr dh ykHkjkf'k;ksa vkSj miyfC/;ksa esa fgLlk ysusdk gj izdkj dk vf/dkj gksxkA

lnL; ds drZO;

fdlh Hkh lgdkfjrk ds lnL; ds vf/dkj vkSj drZO;,d nwljs ds iwjd vkSj vuqiwjd gksrs gSaA bu nksuksa dks/kj.k djus esa lnL; lgdkfjrk ds dk;ksZa ds izfr vf/dtkx:d vkSj ftEesnkj curk gSA bu drZO;ksa dks eksVs rkSj ijbl izdkj oxhZd`r fd;k x;k gS %&

& lgdkfjrk ds izfr oiQknkj gksuk pkfg,A

& lgdkfjrk ds mifu;eksa dk ikyu djuk pkfg,A

& vuq'kkflr gksuk pkfg, rFkk lnL;ksa vkSj lfefr ds vU;lnL;ksa ls feyus&tqyus esa f'k"Vkpkj dk fuokZg djukpkfg,A

& izca/u dks vius drZO;ksa dk fuokZg djus esa iwjh fu"Bkls enn djuh pkfg,A

& lgdkfjrk fl¼kUrksa rFkk ewY;ksa ls Hkyh&Hkkafr ifjfprgksuk pkfg,A

& lgdkfjrk ds mifu;eksa dh iwjh tkudkjh gksuh pkfg,A

& vius vkidks lH;] f'k"V vkSj ltx cuk, j[kuk pkfg,rkfd og lgdkfjrk dks mius mn~ns';ksa dks vkxs c<+kusdh dk;Ziz.kkyh esa vf/d izHkkoh <ax ls Hkkx ys ldsA

& lgdkfjrk ds dtksaZ dk le; ls Hkqxrku dj nsuk pkfg,A

& vU; ckdhnkj lnL;ksa ls cdk;k jkf'k;ksa dh olwyh dsfy, olwyh vfHk;ku pykuk pkfg,A

& lHkh cSBdksa esa Hkkx ysuk pkfg,A

& lgdkfjrk ds iw.kZ fodkl ds fy, dk;Z djuk pkfg,rFkk vius mQij fdlh Hkh izdkj dh nsunkjh ugha Mkyuhpkfg,A

& lgdkfjrk ds fnokfy;siu dh fLFkfr esa] gj lnL; viuh'ks;j iwath dh lhek rFkk mifu;eksa esa ;Fkk fufnZ"V lhekrd Hkqxrku djus ds fy, nsunkj gksxkA

& vkokl lgdkfjrk vkSj mlds fl¼kUrksa ds ckjs esa lnL;ksads chp rFkk O;kid tu&leqnk; ds chp vuqdwyokrkoj.k cuk;sA

lnL;ksa ds nkf;Ro

v- lHkh lnL; vkokl lgdkfjrk dks ns; Hkqxrku le; ij

djus ds fy, ftEesnkj gksaxs vkSj lqfuf'pr djsaxs fdlgdkfjrk dh vke lHkk }kjk cuk, x, dk;Zekudksa dkikyu vU; ds }kjk Hkh fd;k tk,A

c- fdlh ,d lgdkfjrk ds lnL; mlh 'kgj esa mlh rjgdh vU; lgdkfjrk dh lnL;rk ugha ys ldrs gSaA

l- ,slk dksbZ Hkh lnL; tks lgdkfjrk ds ½.k ds HkqxrkuvkSj vU; cdk;k jkf'k ds Hkqxrku djus esa vliQy jgkgks] og pquko esa Hkkx ysus vkSj oksV nsus dk ik=k ughagksrk gSaA

n- ,sls lnL; ds f[kykiQ fu"dklu tSlh vuq'kklfuddkjZokbZ dh tk ldrh gS tks tkucw>dj vkokl lgdkfjrkdks /ks[kk nsrk gS ;k mlds izfr vuknj n'kkZrk gS vFkok,slk dk;Z fd;k gS tks lgdkfjrk ds fgrksa ds f[kykiQgksA rFkkfi fdlh Hkh lnL; dks rc rd fu"dkflr ughafd;k tk ldrk tc rd fd mls mfpr dkj.k crkvksuksfVl u fn;k x;k gks vkSj viuk cpko i{k j[kus dsfy;s ;Fkksfpr volj u fn;k x;k gksA

vkokl lgdkfjrk ds lnL;ksa ds fy, vkpkj lafgrk

vkokl lgdkfjrk ds lnL; ds :i esa lnL; dksfuEufyf[kr vk'oklu vkSj opuc¼rk nsuh gksrh gS %

(d) og lnL; ds :i esa lgdkfjrk ds izfr ges'kk oiQknkjjgsxk vkSj mlds y{;ksa rFkk mn~ns';ksa dks gkfly djusds fy, lger gksxkA

([k) og lgdkfjrk ds oiQknkj lnL; ds :i esa ftEesnkfj;ksavkSj drZO;ksa dk fuokZgu iwjh fu"Bk ls djsxkA

(x) lgdkfjrk ds izR;sd nwljs lnL; ds vf/dkjksa dh lqj{kkvkSj laj{kk djsxkA

(?k) lgdkfjrk dh xksiuh; lwpuk dh lqj{kk vkSj laj{kk djsxkvkSj lgdkfjrk ls lacaf/r fdlh Hkh lwpuk dks rhljsO;fDr ;k i{k dks u crkus dh cpuo¼rk nsxkA

(Ä) lgdkfjrk ds ckjs esa dksbZ Hkh vlR; ;k Hkzked lwpuktkjh ;k miyC/ ugha djk;sxkA

(p) futh fgr vkSj lgdkfjrk ds fgrksa ds Vdjko dh fLFkfresa og lgdkfjrk ds fgrksa dks izkFkfedrk nsxkA

(N) lHkh lnL;ksa ds chp 'kkafriw.kZ lg&vfLrRo lqfuf'prdjus ds fy, iwjh lgk;rk vkSj lg;ksx djsxkA

(t) lgdkfjrk dh dk;Ziz.kkyh dks 'kkflr djus okys dkuwu]fu;eksa] mifu;eksa] vkSj fofu;eksa dk ikyu djsxkA

Untitled - National Cooperative Housing Federation of India

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