Monthly Summary on principal activities for the Cabinet for the of April, 2021.

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject:  Monthly Summary on principal activities for the Cabinet for the of April, 2021.

The undersigned is directed to forward herewith a copy of the unclassified Monthly Summary on principal activities of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs , for the month of April, 2021.

To

• 1. All Members of the Council of Ministers 

Copy with enclosures forwarded to:

• 1. Secretaries to the Government of India
• 2. Chairman, Railway Board, New Delhi 

Copy also to:

• 1. Ms. Rachna Shah, Addl. Secretary , Cabinet Secretariat , Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi.
• 2. IT Cell, M/o Housing and Urban Affairs, Nirman Bhawan – for uploading on the website of the Ministry.

Monthly summary on the principal activities of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for the month of April, 2021.

1. Swachh Bharat Mission

i. On Swachh Bharat Helpline ( 1969), for all issues related to Swachh Bharat, 5.40  lakh  calls  have been answered  with  an  average  handling  time of  1 minute 28 seconds.

ii. A total of 4,360 cities/ towns have been declared as ODF (Open Defecation Free), 2,459 cities have been certified as ODF+ and 896 cities have been certified as ODF++. An ODF++ city requires to achieve sanitation sustainability by addressing complete sanitation, including safe containment, processing and disposal of faecal sludge and septage. 

iii. 60,000 toilets across more than 2,900+ cities are live on Google Maps with the name of “SBM Toilet” covering 55% of urban population .

iv. Swachhata App emerged as an important tool to handle Queries specific to Covid 19. The Ministry announced the launch of a revised version of the existing Swachhata-MoHUA App in order to enable citizens to get their COVID-related complaints also redressed by their respective ULBs. The Swachhata App has a total of 1.8 crore users, who have posted 2.27 crore complaints, of which 2.13 crore complaints have been resolved, with a resolution of above 93%.

v. The number of cities with 5-Star Certification is 6, 3-Star Certification is 86 and 1-Star Certification is 65 under Star Rating Protocol for Garbage Free Cities.

vi. Under Swachh Manch, 4,000 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) are involved by posting of 1,52,690 events with more than 7.16 crore citizen’s participation.

vii. Skill Development Trainings of Safaimitras have been held in 64 cities of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Punjab, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh under Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge(SSC) .3,112 Safaimitras have already completed training. Further requirement of 2888 trainees to be trained has been received from States/UTs.

viii. 345 cities have operationalized ‘14420’ helpline number for safe cleaning of septic tanks/sewers & registering complaints on hazardous cleaning.

ix. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India and Deutsche Gesellschaft tor Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH India on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Environment,  Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety signed  an agreement on Technical Cooperation titled ‘Cities Combating Plastic Entering the Marine Environment’ at a virtual ceremony  on Monday, 19 April 2021 in New Delhi. The project, aimed at enhancing practices to prevent plastic entering the marine environment, will be undertaken at the national level (at MoHUA), select states (Uttar  Pradesh, Kerala and Andaman  & Nicobar Islands) and in the cities of Kanpur, Kochi and Port Blair for a period of three and a half years.

x . MoHUA finalized standard uniform designs for various categories of sanitation workers across urban India. These include Swachhata Commandos (sanitation workers engaged in underground cleaning of sewers and septic tanks), Safaimitras (engaged in road sweeping and waste collection) and Swachhata Supervisors/ Operators. The designs have been developed with support from NIFT,Mohali and NIFT Gandhinagar.

xi. Notable Information Education and Communication (IEC) campaigns launched during the month:

• SBM-U developed a campaign on World Health Day, 7 April 2021 to spread awareness regarding the interdependency of Swachh (clean) and Swasth (healthy) and motivate citizens to follow Swachh habits in their everyday lives.

• In an effort to encourage States and ULBs to segregate their waste  and reiterate this important daily practice, Ministry has developed a campaign titled ‘Alag Karo’ (Segregate your Waste) into different categories such as dry, waste and domestic hazardous waste.

• A campaign on Earth Day, April 22 was launched by SBM-U spread awareness on sustainable waste management and sanitation.

• In continuation to various ongoing IEC campaigns conducted under SBM-U, to galvanize the momentum towards a Swacch, Swasth, and Samriddh Bharat, on each Sunday of April 2021, a mega swachhata awareness campaign- “Swachhata Sankalp Desh Ka, Har Ravivaar Vishesh Sa” was organisedin ULBs across urban India. To improve the ownership and sustainability of SBM assets, weekly verification of public and community toilets was conducted by engaging citizens, youth leaders, SHG members, Resident Welfare Association (RWAs), and Slum Development Association (SDAs)members . For every weekly event, the ULBs ensured that the campaign garnered maximum participation from different stakeholders and it became a grand success. Creative and collaterals for the same have been developed and disseminated to States and ULBs for maximum outreach.

xii. Interventions during COVID-19 during the month:

• a) In view of the second wave of COVID-19, the Ministry requested the Principal Secretaries (Urban Development) of all States/UTs to proactively engage with all Swachhagrahis, volunteer organizations, citizen groups, Self Help Groups, NGOs, Community  Based Organisations and SBM-U brand ambassadors, RWAs, market associations and social media influencers and enlist their cooperation in  disseminating  the  message  of  COVID-19  Appropriate Behaviour and importance of vaccination amongst citizens through different platforms, including social and digital media as part of their action plan during the second wave of COVID-19. Along with the same IEC collaterals pertaining to COVID-19 were developed and shared with States/UTs and ULBs and they were encouraged to disseminate COVID-19 Appropriate Behaviour messages through mass, digital and outdoor media.

• b) As  reported, 14.5 lakhs  beneficiary  details  of  municipal frontline  workers (including sanitation workers)  have been uploaded on the Co-WIN portal by 36 States/UTs for the Covid-19 vaccination drive of frontline workers .7.43 lakhs municipal frontline workers have been administered first dose of vaccine and 3.85 lakhs municipal frontline workers have been administered second dose of vaccine. More rigorous efforts are being given to fast track the vaccination drive for the frontline workers in the ULBs.

II. Smart Cities Mission (SCM)

i. During the month 89 projects worth Rs. 1,345 crore have been completed, work has been started on 96 projects worth Rs. 812 crore. So far 5,710 projects worth Rs. 1.74,369 crore have been tendered , work orders have been issued for 5,011 projects worth Rs. 1,41,461 crore out of which 2,497 projects worth Rs. 41,483 crore have been completed.

ii. Smart  Cities Mission launched  the  Eat Smart Cities  Challenge and  the Transport 4All -Digital Innovation Challenge through an on-line video conferencing session on 15th April 2021.   Eat Smart Cities Challenge is envisioned as a healthy competition among cities to recognize their efforts in adopting and scaling up various initiatives under Eat Right India. This challenge will motivate Smart Cities to develop a healthy, safe & sustainable food ecosystem thereby enhancing the health and well-being of the citizens. The Challenge has been launched in collaboration with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Cities can register for the challenge upto 14th May 2021.

iii. Transport4All-Digital Innovation Challenge will improve public transport services and action out the National Urban  Transport Policy. This is an initiative to restore faith of citizens to use public transport . Transport4All Challenge will focus on improving travel experience of citizens by seeking solutions in thematic areas including Fare Products and Payment Solutions, Service Planning and Monitoring and Passenger Information Systems. Cities can register for the challenge upto 15th May 2021.

iv. Various actions taken for Covid Management in Smart Cities are as follows:

• a) Covid Appropriate Behavior is being monitored in Smart Cities on a weekly basis which is uploaded by Smart Cities in Smart Cities Mission – Geographic Management Information System(SCM GMIS) and reported to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

• b) Integrated Command and Control Centers set up under the Mission have been transformed into Covid War Rooms. These ICCCs are being used to monitor patients, hospital beds, oxygen availability, manage patent shifting and other crowd control activities to manage Covid.

 III. Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)

i. State Annual  Action  Plans (SAAPs) have been finalized  for all the states for 77,640 crore. As on date, Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) have been approved for the projects costing 81,277 crore. Some States have taken up projects in excess of their approved SAAPs. Entire excess amount in such cases will be borne by the States/ULBs. Works have been completed for 3,503  projects worth 18,381 crore, work  is in progress for 2,222 projects worth 60,967  crore. In addition to completed projects, physical work  worth  about 32,443  crore  has been completed in ongoing AMRUT  projects implying that more than 65% of physical work has been completed.

ii. So far, 30,596 crore has been released to States/UTs towards project implementation (including the eligible projects of erstwhile JnNURM) , Administrative & Office Expenses (A&OE), reform incentive, and  under sub­ schemes on ‘Formulation of GIS based Master Plans in AMRUT cities’ and ‘Local Area Plan (LAP) and Town Planning Schemes (TPS)’ in 25 selected cities.

IV. Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana /National Urban Livelihood Mission (DAY/NULM)

i. 1,504 Self Help Groups (SHGs) have been formed; 1,264 SHGs were given Revolving Fund; 16,286 candidates were skill trained and certified; 1,156 trained candidates were given placement; 352 beneficiaries were assisted with loans for setting up of individual and micro enterprises and 298 loans were given to SHGs under SHG-Bank linkage programme.

ii. Under PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PMSVA Nidhi), 41 ,20,094 applications have been received against which 23,87,428 sanctions and 20,06,991 disbursals have been made.

iii. Activities undertaken during the second wave of COVID -19 Pandemic during the month:

• All States/ UTs have been advised to engage SHGs and Area Level Federations (ALFs) in creating awareness about Covid Appropriate Behaviour in the community.

• Over 55 lakh Self-Help Groups (SHGs) members have been mobilised for undertaking and promoting vaccination among their family and community.

• Sanitization of Shelters for Urban Homeless organised across country as a precautionary measure against pandemic.

• From March 2021 till April 2021, 1,000 SHGs have produced around 25 lakh facemasks, 10 lakh PPE kits and 10,000 litres of sanitizers .

• DO letter sent to all States/UTs on April 26, 2021 for encouraging SHGs to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic .

 V. Pradan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)/Housing for All (HFA)

i. Since the inception, Mission has sanctioned in full 1.12 crore houses against validated demand. 80.49 lakh houses have been grounded for construction of which 48.05 lakh houses have been completed/delivered .

ii. Action taken during second wave of COVID-19 during the month:

• Under the ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ package announced in 2020 in the wake of COVID-19, an Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHCs) scheme for providing ease of living to urban migrants/ poor of Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)/ Lower Income Group (LIG) categories near their workplaces was launched under PMAY-U. So far, 31 States/ UTs have signed Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) for implementation of ARHCs so as to provide incentives such as increased F,6,R, ‘use permission’ changes, trunk infrastructure facilities up to project site , municipal services at par with residential projects to entities/ concessionaires implementing the scheme.

• In these tough times, PMAY-U is providing dignified living spaces to people. In Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh and a few other States, PMAY-U houses are being used as COVID-19 care centres to provide relief to people. Houses under the Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP) component of PMAY-U in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam, Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli and Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh are currently functioning as care centres.

• Social media is also being used as a powerful tool to disseminate information , create awareness and educate beneficiaries , stakeholders on COVID-19 . Accordingly , from 1st October 2020 to 14th May 2021, a total of 2,276 social/ digital media posts (including by States/ UTs) having a reach of (approximately) 69,77,422, have been shared on different social/ digital media platforms as part of the Jan Andolan and Angikaar campaigns.

VI. Urban Transport

i. The Union Cabinet, in its meeting held on 20 April, 2021 has approved Bangaluru Metro Rail Project Phase – 2A & 28 of length 58.19 km at a cost of Rs. 14,788.101 crore.

ii. Ministry has been continuously and proactively interacting with Metro companies, issued directions from time to time in order to ensure complete coordination/compliance to the overall Action Plan Guidelines/Directives of the Government of India in tackling COVID-19. Also, Secretary (HUA), vide DO letters dated 27.04.2021, has requested MDs of all metro rail corporations to ensure that all labour & worker s at the construction sites are vaccinated at the earliest.

VII. Housing

i. 34 States/ UTs have notified rules under RERA; One North Eastern State namely Nagaland is under process to notify the rules under RERA. West Bengal has enacted its own legislation, which has been challenged before Supreme Court and MoHUA has filed its affidavit to annulit.

ii. 30 States/UTs have set up Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Regular –  25, Interim – 05).

iii. 28 States/UTs have set up Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (Regular -22, Interim – 06).

iv. Regulatory Authorities of 27 States/UTs have operationalized their websites under the provisions of RERA.

v. So far, 66,779 complaints (including 1,720 complaints during the month) have been disposed of by the Real Estate Regulatory Authorities across the country

vi. So far, 63,810 real estate projects and 50,420 real estate agents have been registered under RERA. 827 real estate projects and 1,341 real estate agents have been registered during the month.