 bill no lxxii of 2016 the right to adequate housing bill, 2016 a billto provide for adequate dwelling house to the families living below poverty line or fallingunder low income group in the country by providing one free of cost or at such reasonable cost and providing interest free loans to families in low income group for purchase of house and for matter connected therewith and incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-seventh year of the republic of  india1 (1) this act may be called the right to adequate housing act, 2016short title, extent and commencement(2) it shall extend to the whole of indiadefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) ''committee'' means monitoring and grievance redressal committeeconstituted under section 8(b) ''dwelling house'' means a house comprising of at least one living room, onebed room, one kitchen and one toilet with electricity, water and sanitation facilities5(c) ''fund'' means house building fund established under section 7 (d) ''families living below poverty line'' means those families who are declaredby the central government to be living below poverty line(e) ''prescribed'' means prescribed by rules made under this act103 (1)the central government shall, within period of five years from the commencement of this act, provide one free of cost, all-weather dwelling house to each family living below poverty line in the country:provided that while providing the dwelling house the central governmentshall take into account the number of members in the familycentral government to provide dwelling house to families living below poverty line15(2)for the purposes of sub-section (1), the central government shall, inconsultation with the concerned state government cause to be notified a list of all families living below poverty line in each state and union teritory in such manner as may be prescribed20(3)the priority of allotting the dwelling house in a state or union territory shall be determined by draw of lot to be conducted in such manner as may be prescribed4 (1)the central government shall, within a period of seven years from thecommencement of this act, provide dwelling house, at fifty per cent of the cost toeach family, having an annual income of less than rupees five lakh:provided that while providing the dwelling home the central governmentshall take into account the number of members in the family25central government to provide dwelling house at fifty per cent of the cost(2)for the purpose of sub-section (1), the central government shall;(i) in consultation with the state government cause to be notified a list of allfamilies having an annual income less than rupees five lakh in each stateand union territory in such manner as may be prescribed30(ii) provide interest free loans to the family to pay the cost of the house in suchmanner as may be prescribed(3)the priority of allotting the dwelling house in a state or union territory underthis section shall be determined by the draw of lot to be conducted in such manner as may be prescribed355 (1)the central government shall, after every four years, undertake the maintenance of the dwelling unit given under section 3 of the families living below poverty line and charge such nominal amount for the purpose as may be prescribedcentral government to maintain the dwelling unit40(2)the central government shall, after every four years, undertake the maintenance of the dwelling house given under section 4 of families whose annual income is less than rupees five lakh and charge fifty per cent of the maintenance costsuccession of dwelling unit6 the central government shall ensure that on the death of the head of a family livingbelow poverty line or earning less than rupees five lakh annually, the title of the dwelling unit shall pass on to the spouse457 (1) the central government shall, by notification in the official gazette, establish a fund to be known as the house building fund for poor and families living below poverty line for the purpose of this acthouse building fund for poor and below poverty line families(2)there shall be paid into the fund,—(a) amounts received from the central and the state government as grant-in aid; (b) donations received from various sources; and (c) such other sums of money as may be prescribed5(3)the central and the state governments shall contribute in the fund in such ratioas may be determined in each case8 (1) there shall be established a monitoring and grievance redressal committee to augment and make effective, the process of providing dwelling houses to the poor and families living below poverty line and redressal of their grievancesmonitoring and grievance redressal committee10(2) the committee shall consist of,—(i)a retired judge of supreme court—chairperson(ii) secretary of the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviations, centralgovernment—member15(iii) two eminent persons having experience in working for poor and below povertyline families—members(iv) four secretaries of housing department, state governments to be nominatedon rotational basis—members(3)the term and conditions of the chairman and the members of the committeeshall be such as may be prescribed20(4)the salary and allowances of the non-governmental members of the committee shall be such as may be prescribed(5)the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation shall provide secretarial assistance to the committee9 the committee shall:—25functions of the committee(i)suggest ways to augment the process of providing housing to poor andfamilies living below the poverty line;(ii) receive and redress grievances of the people in respect of their right tohousing under this act;30(iii) suggest from time to time the specification that may be adopted whileconstructing the houses for poor and families living below the poverty line(iv) perform such other functions as may be prescribedpower to remove difficulties10 if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this act, the central government may, by order published in the official gazette, make such provisions, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as appear to it to be necessary or expedient for removing the difficulty:35provided that no such orders shall be made after expiry of the period of three years from the date of commencement of this act11 the provisions of this act shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, the provisions in any other law, for the time being in force, providing homes to families living below poverty line and to families  earning less than rupees five lakh per annum40act to have effect in addition to other actspower to make rules12 the central government may, by notification in the official gazette make rules tocarry out the provisions of this act statement  of  objects  and  reasonshousing forms an indispensable part of ensuring human dignity adequate housing encompasses more than just four walls of room and roof over one's head housing is essential for normal healthy living it fulfills deep seated psychological needs for privacy and personal space; physical needs for security and protection from inclement weather article 25 of the universal declaration of human rights recognizes the right to housing as part of right to adequate standard of living article 11(1) of the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights (icescr) also guarantees the right to housing as part of the right to an adequate standard of living besides, the right to adequate housing is also recognized internationally in several other instruments that have focused on the need to protect rights of particular groups such as convention on the elimination for all forms of discrimination against women (cedaw), convention on the right of the child (crc) and the international convention on elimination of racial discrimination (cerd) india as party to international covenants has obligation to provide adequate housing to its citizenssupreme court in various judgements such as olga tellis vs bombay municipal corporation (1985) 3 scc 545; shantistar  builders vs narayan khimalal totame (1990) 1 scc 520; chameli singh vs state of up (1996) 2 scc 549; pg gupta vs state of gujarat (1995) supp (2) scc 182, ahmadabad municipal corporation vs nawab khan gulab khan and others (1997) 11 scc 121, has elaborated on the right to adequate housing, shelter and livelihood being part of all encompassing right to life under article 21 of the constitution increasing disparity in income has also led to the homelessness in our country while some people live in palaces or big houses, some don't even have access to a shelter the housing with its rising cost has become unaffordable according to an estimate, there are around fifteen crore homeless people in india these homeless people face vagaries of weather from chilling cold in winters to heat waves during summer many of these homeless people die every year most of these homeless persons are poor or live below the poverty line adequate housing is also necessary for protection of childhood as homeless child is invariably subjected to child abuse and crime still lakhs of persons particularly living below the poverty line or falling with in low income group are not having roof over their heads and living in sub-human conditions on pavements, bastis, jhuggi-jhopri and unauthorised slums it is the government's obligation to guarantee that everyone can exercise this right to live in security, peace and dignity therefore, it is felt that the government should provide at least one dwelling house to each family living below poverty line free of cost further, the persons falling within low income group should also be given one dwelling house at fifty percent of the cost of construction since, poor families cannot afford to pay a lump sum amount to purchase house it also proposed that they should be given one time interest free loans for the purposehence, this bill financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides that the families living below poverty line shall be provided a dwelling unit free of cost clause 4 provides that families earning below rupees five lakh shall be given a dwelling unit at fifty percent of the cost clause 5 provides that central government shall also undertake the maintenance of these dwelling units clause 7 provides that central government shall also contribute to the house building fund clause 8 provides that there shall be a monitoring and grievance redressal committee it is difficult to estimate the recurring consolidated fund of india expenditure that may be required from as the same will depend on the number of eligible persons for housing and the decision of the central government on the number of housing units to be constructed every year however, a non-recurring cost of rupees one crore will be involved memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 12 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill as the matter will relate to details only, the delegation of legislative powers is of normal character rajya  sabha———— a billto provide for adequate dwelling house to the families living below poverty line or fallingunder low income group in the country by providing one free of cost or at such reasonable cost and providing interest free loans to families in low income group for purchase of house and matter connected therewith and incidental thereto————(shri sanjay seth, mp)gmgipmrnd—4427rs(s3)—03022017