21. "Housing for All" has been identified as a priority area in the Agenda for Governance. For the coming financial year, a goal of providing 25 lakh dwelling units in rural areas has been fixed. Schemes for meeting the needs of different sections of society have been prepared.

(i) Under Indira Awas Yojana, it is proposed to provide more than 12 lakh houses for the people below poverty line. For this purpose, an amount of Rs.1,501 crore is being provided in the budget.

(ii) For families with an annual income of below Rs.32,000 per annum, assistance will be provided for construction of 1 lakh houses under credit-cum-subsidy Scheme. An amount of Rs.92 crore is being provided in the budget for this scheme.

(iii) The National Housing Bank will provide refinance to banks and housing finance companies for construction of 1.5 lakh houses under Golden Jubilee Rural Housing Finance Scheme.

(iv) To further improve the availability of housing finance in rural areas, Government have decided to provide equity support of Rs.350 crore to HUDCO during the Ninth Plan period. Of this, Rs.200 crore have already been released and it is proposed to release a further amount of Rs.100 crore in the next year. With this enhanced equity support, HUDCO will be able to leverage these funds and raise further resources to facilitate and provide finance for the construction of about 9 lakh houses in the rural areas in the coming financial year.

(v) The cooperative sector and voluntary agencies etc. will support the construction of another 1.5 lakh houses.