RWAs and sense of ownership: Tamil Nadu’s urban solution

CHENNAI: To counter the problem of urban maintenance, the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board introduced a program named ‘Nam Kudiyiruppu, Nam Poruppu (Our homes, our responsibility)’ on Monday, January 3. The Housing and Urban Development Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, made the decision keeping in mind the need for building a community. 

Through the program, the residents would be directly involved in the process of managing the projects and handling the funding. This would bring an enhanced sense of ownership among the residents to look after their living spaces. In this regard, the Government of Odisha recently issued an order fixing the maintenance charges at either Rs 750 or Rs 250 (depending on the buildings). The responsibility of collecting the funds would be handed over to Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs). 

The Government of Odisha will be providing a matching grant, which would be equivalent to the maintenance charges collected by RWA. The housing board has ordered that the routine maintenance and minor repair works will be carried out by the funds collected by the associations. The major repair works related to water supply and electricity will be carried by the funding collected from the board.