IANS

New Delhi, Jun 4: The Manmohan Singh government will launch a special housing scheme for the urban poor aiming to "create a slum free India" in five years, President Pratibha Patil said Thursday.

Called the Rajiv Awas Yojana, the scheme for the urban poor and slum dwellers is on the lines of the Indira Awas Yojana being implemented in the rural areas.

Addressing a joint session of parliament, the president said: "My government's effort would be to create a slum free India in five years through the Rajiv Awas Yojana."

The scheme envisages to extend financial support under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to states "that are willing to assign property rights" to people living in slums.

Patil said the existing schemes for affordable housing, including interest subsidy offer, would be dovetailed into the Rajiv Awas Yojana to make it a pilot project on affordable housing for urban poor.