In what speaks volumes about poor performance of the housing schemes for urban slum dwellers under the UPA’s key flagship programme, JNNURM, just 8.15 lakhs out of the total 14.42 lakhs sanctioned houses constructed from 2005 to June 2014. Similarly, while construction is under progress in 3.83 lakhs houses, work has not been initiated in nearly two lakhs units across the States. Data available with the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation shows that under Basic Services for the Urban Poor (BSUP) scheme (BSUP) and Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHDSP) — two sub-missions of the JNNURM — 1,515 projects were approved for construction of 14,42,187 dwelling units out of which 8,15,786 have been completed so far. Under IHDSP, 5,25,991 houses were approved by the Government of which 2,73,682 dwelling units have been completed. Construction under 1,53,026 is under progress, the official said. Similarly, the BUSP scheme is moving at the snail’s pace with out of total 9,16,196 sanctioned dwelling units just 5,42,104 have been constructed so far. Also, construction is under progress in 2,30,516 houses. Construction is yet to start for 1,43,576 dwelling units while under the IHDSP no work has been initiated in 99, 000 houses. With the Centre now allowing only those projects under construction as per recent guidelines, the States will have to drop construction of around two lakh dwelling units under the two schemes as the work is yet to start in these proposed houses. A senior HUPA official said that delays were mostly due to the non availability of resources such as land, litigation related to land or escalation of costs and changes in designs, while in many cases the municipalities and State Governments did not keep their commitment of ensure dwelling units to the poor. Also, reluctance of slum dwellers to shift in case of in-situ development of project and availability of encumbrance free land posed a major challenge to the States to expedite the housing projects, the official said. The BSUP scheme aimed to improve conditions for urban slum dwellers in 63 identified mission cities in 31 States and UTs for 479 projects. Thirty-three States and UTs have been covered under JNNURM sub-mission Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHDSP) for which funds were allocated for 977 projects. Housing projects under BSUP and IHDSP were sanctioned up to March 2012 and the deadline has been extended till March 205 for the ongoing projects to be completed.