New Delhi: Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented the Union Budget in Parliament and said land records in urban areas will be digitised with GIS mapping. "An IT-based system for property record administration, updating and tax administration will be established. These will also facilitate improving the financial position of urban local bodies," the Finance Minister said. Presenting the budget in Parliament, she said, "Land-related reforms and actions, both in rural and urban areas, will be incentivised for completion within the next three years through appropriate fiscal support."
The Finance Minister said, "The reforms will cover land administration, planning and management, urban planning, usage and building bylaws." Sitharaman elaborated that rural land-related actions will include the assignment of Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) or Bhu-Aadhaar for all lands, digitisation of cadastral maps, survey of map sub-divisions as per current ownership, establishment of land registry and linking to the farmers registry. These actions will also facilitate credit flow and other agricultural services.
Besides this, the Union Minister stated that three crore additional houses under the PM Awas Yojana in rural and urban areas in the country have been announced for which necessary allocations are being made in the Budget. She further said that under the PM Awas Yojana Urban 2.0, the housing needs of one crore urban poor and middle-class families will be addressed with an investment of Rs 10 lakh crore. This will include central assistance of Rs 2.2 lakh crore in the next five years. A provision of interest subsidy to facilitate loans at affordable rates is also envisaged, she added.
Speaking on rental housing, the Union Minister said, “Rental housing with dormitory type accommodation for industrial workers will be facilitated in PPP mode with Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support and commitment from anchor industries.” She further added that enabling policies and regulations for efficient and transparent rental housing markets with enhanced availability will also be put in place. In her speech, she further said that for creative brownfield redevelopment of existing cities with a transformative impact, the government will formulate a framework for enabling policies, market-based mechanisms and regulation.
