The Minister of Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation& Parliamentary Affairs, M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the function and addressed the august gathering to commemorate HUDCO’s 45th Foundation Day.
M Venkaiah Naidu emphasized on three basic mantra’s of the Prime Minister of India that of ‘skill, scale and speed’. The Minister, said, that the Centre and States have to effectively engage the private sector to achieve the mission of affordable housing for all by 2022. The Minister complimented HUDCO in its endeavor to provide affordable housing to the unreached by financing 92% of its housing schemes to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Low Income Groups (LIGs).
The Minister said that agriculture alone cannot sustain people, and therefore, focus has to be aimed towards sustainable urbanization for optimum use of space for housing and providing infrastructure facilities such as metros, airports, BRTs to the people. The main agenda of the Government of India, he said, is ‘growth, development and governance’.
The Minister impressed that the focus of urbanization should be to create innovative ideas through proper planning and disaster management preparedness by adapting and adopting best practices from all over the world. On the occasion, the Hon’ble Minister released three HUDCO publications namely, HUDCO Darpan, Shelter and HUDCO Design Awards – 2014.
Babul Supriyo, Minister of State for Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation graced the occasion and congratulated HUDCO for its 45 years of existence in providing housing and basic infrastructure across the country. He saidthat HUDCO, since its establishment, has been a vital cog in the scheme of things of the Government of India in its various efforts in the provision of social housing and basic urban amenities in the country.
He further added that, HUDCO’s Mission Statement –“to promote sustainable habitat development to enhance quality of life” echoes the efforts of the Ministry of HUPA to make housing affordable and accessible to all. He further said that urbanization is a phenomenon, which cannot be reversed or wished away but in fact is continuously on the rise. While addressing the shortage of housing and urban infrastructure deficiency, he emphasized that we must be able to turn red-tapism to red-carpet, while implementing the policies of the Government of India. The Minister of State gave away awards to the Best performing agencies, HUDCO Best Practices, Best Regional Offices, Long Service, HUDCO Design Awards and he congratulated all the recipients.
While delivering the Welcome Address Dr. M Ravi Kanth, CMD HUDCO highlighted the key role played by HUDCO over the years, in channelling investments into housing and urban infrastructure sectors andat the same time, being the principal arm of the Government of India, HUDCO has assisted in the implementation of various housing and urban development programmes of Central and State governments from time to time. Detailing HUDCOs laudable performance in terms of sanctions, releases and reduction in NPAs, he mentioned that this was made possible due to the unflinching support and constant guidance extended by the Hon’ble Union Minister, the Hon’bleMoS and the Ministry of HUPA.
This was followed by a cultural programme by the members of the HUDCO family.
