 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 27 May 2004 |
| Dissolved | 6 July 2017 |
| Jurisdiction | Government of India |
| Headquarters | New Delhi |
| Website | mhupa |
TheMinistry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation was a ministry of theGovernment of India responsible for urbanpoverty,housing, andemployment programs. It was involved in national policy decisions and coordinates with Indian centralministries, state governments, and central sponsor programs.
On 6 July 2017, the ministry was re-united with the Ministry of Urban Development to form theMinistry of Housing and Urban Affairs.[1]
The ministry was first created in 1999 as the "Ministry of Urban Affairs and Poverty Alleviation" and existed alongside theMinistry of Urban Development. On 22 November 1999, the ministry was renamed as the "Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation" and was concerned with generating employment in urban areas. On 27 May 2000, the ministry was merged along with the Ministry of Urban Development and renamed as the "Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation".
Following the formation of theFirst Manmohan Singh ministry on 22 May 2004, the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation was re-bifurcated into the "Ministry of Urban Development" and the "Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation". The Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation was renamed as the "Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation" on 1 June 2006. The ministry was re-merged with the Ministry of Urban Development on 6 July 2017 to form the "Ministry of Urban Affairs".
TheIndian Constitution has allocated responsibility forhousing andurban development to the state; and the 74th amendment to the Constitution delegates some responsibility to the local governments. The ministry was responsible for thenational capital territory ofDelhi andunion territories. It also provided finances through federal institutions and allocates resources to the state governments. The ministry supported the country's external housing and urban development assistance programs.[2]
The ministry had administrative control over theNational Buildings Organisation (NBO) attached office and the Hindustan Prefab Limited (HPL) andHousing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO)public sector undertakings. It was also responsible for the following statutory and autonomous bodies:
For poverty alleviation programs to be successful, the following sectors should realise improvements: Income generation, health, shelter, education, environment and infrastructure. Environmental Improvement for Urban Slum, Urban Basic Service programs, Nehru Rozgar Yojana, Shelter and Infrastructural facilities, and Low Cost Sanitation Night Shelter are examples of schemes to meet these objectives.[3]
The Ministry had constituted a Committee on Streamlining Approval Procedures for Real Estate Projects (SAPREP)[4] under the chairmanship ofDhanendra Kumar, former chairman of Competition Commission of India. Amongst other things, the concept of single window clearance as advocated by this committee report draw parallels with government's effort towards improving ease of doing business in the country.[5]
TheGovernment of India has launched various programs since itsindependence, such as some of thefive-year plans, to alleviate poverty and address the widening income gap, both, amongst the upper and lower classes of society, and amongst the rural and urban parts of the country.[6] For instance, the "Eighth Plan policy guidelines envisage integrated approach to alleviation of urban poverty and servicing the urban poor with basic facilities so that their quality of life improves."[7]
As trends in theGini coefficient reflect,[6] the income gaps were not as pronounced until the early 1980s, but the situation has been continually getting worse since. Misplaced priorities of the Indian Government and bad planning of subsidy programs is largely responsible for this.[citation needed] Hosting the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in 2010 that cost the exchequer an approximate₹110 billion (US$1.3 billion), excluding the price of non-sports related infrastructure, is a case in point.[8]
While newly launched programs likeMahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA),National Rural Health Mission (NRHM),Food Security Act, Mid-day Meals andBharat Nirman Yojana have demonstrated success in the initial stages, their performance over the long-run still remains to be seen. The shortsightedness of the Indian government often leads it to launch populist programs that may not necessarily work well. Low-hanging fruit like increasing worker'sminimum wage can go a long way in achieving the goal of poverty alleviation, but are yet to be taken up in spite of reminders from leadingeconomists.[9]
On 6 September 2012 the Union Minister,Kumari Selja, introduced theStreet Vendors Act, 2014 in theLok Sabha.[10][11]
| No. | Portrait | Minister (Birth-Death) | Term of office | Political party | Ministry | Prime Minister | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From | To | Period | |||||||
| Minister of Urban Affairs and Poverty Alleviation | |||||||||
| 1 | .jpg) | Satyanarayan Jatiya (born 1946) MP forUjjain | 13 October 1999 | 22 November 1999 | 40 days | Bharatiya Janata Party | Vajpayee III | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | |
| Minister of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation | |||||||||
| 2 |  | Jagmohan (1927–2021) MP forNew Delhi | 22 November 1999 | 26 November 1999 | 4 days | Bharatiya Janata Party | Vajpayee III | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | |
| 3 |  | Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (born 1936) Rajya Sabha MP forPunjab | 26 November 1999 | 27 May 2000 | 183 days | Shiromani Akali Dal | |||
| Minister of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation | |||||||||
| 4 |  | Selja Kumari (born 1962) MP forAmbala (MoS, I/C) | 23 May 2004 | 1 June 2006 | 2 years, 9 days | Indian National Congress | Manmohan I | Manmohan Singh | |
| Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation | |||||||||
| 5 | | Selja Kumari (born 1962) MP forAmbala (MoS, I/C until 22 May 2009) | 1 June 2006 | 22 May 2009 | 2 years, 355 days | Indian National Congress | Manmohan I | Manmohan Singh | |
| 28 May 2009 | 28 October 2012 | 3 years, 214 days | Manmohan II | ||||||
| 6 | .jpg) | Ajay Maken (born 1964) MP forNew Delhi | 28 October 2012 | 16 June 2013 | 231 days | ||||
| 7 | .jpg) | Girija Vyas (1946–2025) MP forChittorgarh | 17 June 2013 | 26 May 2014 | 343 days | ||||
| 8 |  | M. Venkaiah Naidu (born 1948) Rajya Sabha MP forKarnataka, till 2016 Rajya Sabha MP forRajasthan, from 2016 | 26 May 2014 | 6 July 2017 | 3 years, 41 days | Bharatiya Janata Party | Modi I | Narendra Modi | |
| Merged withMinistry of Urban Development to form theMinistry of Housing and Urban Affairs | |||||||||
| No. | Portrait | Minister (Birth-Death) | Term of office | Political party | Ministry | Prime Minister | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From | To | Period | |||||||
| 1 |  | Babul Supriyo (born 1970) MP forAsansol | 9 November 2014 | 12 July 2016 | 1 year, 246 days | Bharatiya Janata Party | Modi I | Narendra Modi | |
| 2 | _for_Planning_in_May_2014_(cropped).jpg) | Rao Inderjit Singh (born 1951) MP forGurgaon | 5 July 2016 | 6 July 2017 | 1 year, 1 day | ||||
| Merged withMinistry of Urban Development to form theMinistry of Housing and Urban Affairs | |||||||||
