By IANS,
New Delhi : The government has launched a programme to rid Indian cities of slums by providing new dwelling units to squatters on payment of a part of the cost, Minister of State for Urban Development Saugata Roy said here Tuesday.
Speaking at a two-day seminar on “Global Urbanisation Experiences”, organised by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and Rosa-Luxemburg Stiftung of Berlin, the minister said the central and state governments would contribute 40 percent each of the cost of the dwellings while the rest would be paid by the slum resident.
Roy said administrators in India could benefit from Germany which successfully addressed the problems of urbanisation.
Roy also spoke of the need for effective public-private partnership to meet the burgeoning gap in infrastructure and service delivery.
ORF Director Sunjoy Joshi said more than 180 million job seekers will be added to the Indian cities population in the next 10-15 years and the so-called demographic dividend could turn into a nightmare unless urbanisation was not planned effectively.