Developed states including Punjab and West Bengal are not very keen to allot land in urban regions for housing projects to rehabilitate the slum tenements says an expert Amitabh Kundu, who chaired a technical committee set up to estimate the urban housing shortage. He is a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He said that 70 per cent of the slums in Indian cities will have to rehabilitate where there are located, 30 per cent will have to be shifted elsewhere.    

In 2008, the Rajiv Awas Yojana was announced by the Union government with an aim to improve dwelling units of the poor who stay in urban slums. Kundu said that without a commitment of State governments to accommodate the poor in cities, the Rs 35,000 crore Rajiv Awas Yojana's aim of proving housing to them will not be successful.    

In India, there is a shortage of 18.78 million housing units, 96 per cent of which is in the economically weaker section and lower income group category, according to the report submitted by Kundu’s committee. Rehabilitation of slum dwellers may be done wherever they are living or by relocating them to a different area, the committee report says.