Housing and Urban Development (H and UD) Minister Usha Devi on Wednesday launched a House Allotment System (HAS), a web-based software solution and mobile application developed by the Odisha Urban Housing Mission (OUHM).

The Minister congratulated the H and UD Department for achieving a milestone in establishing a transparent and professionally managed system, for allotment of Economically Weaker Section (EWS) houses, through the web – based software solution.

“I hope the system will be a step towards achieving the vision and goal of our CM of providing a roof to all persons belonging to the EWS,” she said.

Mission Director, OUHM, Debasis Singh welcomed all the esteemed dignitaries to the launching ceremony and highlighted the importance of the newly developed web – based solution.

Director – Town Planning Sushanta Kumar Mishra, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Vijay Amrut Kulange, BDA Secretary Kabindra Kumar Sahoo and BDA Vice Chairman SanjayKumar Singh were the eminent dignitaries present on the occasion.

Highlighting the Housing for All Policy, Mishra said, “The policy adopts seven models of intervention for creation of affordable housing stock and slum redevelopment. Model-I of the policy envisages that every project developer, be it private developer or Government project development agency, it must reserve at least 10 per cent of the total built up area of a residential project for construction of houses for the people belonging to EWS.”

In accordance with this provision of the policy, by the end of FY 2021 22 approximately 1,500 EWS houses have already been constructed by the developers, which is now required to be allotted to the eligible and intended beneficiaries through a transparent and efficient manner.

The House Allotment System developed by H and UD Department will enable allotment of houses to the beneficiaries, through a fair and transparent mechanism right from registration to handing over of houses, he said.

BMC Commissioner Kulange in his address congratulated H and UD Department and BDA for developing a mechanism to provide houses especially to EWS and stated that the application is a welcome step towards providing houses to the EWS beneficiaries.

BDA Vice Chairman Singh said the application will be very useful to the beneficiaries as each and every service related to house allotment  will be available at their fingertips.

He thanked the Principal Secretary, H and UD Department, G Mathi Vathanan for taking such an initiative to cater to the needs of the EWS beneficiaries in a transparent manner. He also thanked H and UD Department for her guidance and continuous support.

The key objective of the allotment system is to generate predictability, transparency and ensure social auditing. The system will work on the principle of a continuous process of registration of all those families, who want to avail dwelling units under the Housing for All Policy. This application will also help address the challenges of housing in the State by assessing the housing shortage in various cities and plan accordingly.

The other features of the web-based application are legacy data management and integrated payments mechanism. The legacy data management ensures cross verification of beneficiaries who have availed housing facilities through earlier Government schemes whereas the integrated payment mechanism ensures hassle-free online payment by the beneficiaries.