The memorandum is signed among others by Shabana Azmi, Jayanthi Natarajan, Kamala Sinha, Gurudas Das Gupta, Amar Singh, Nilotpal Basu, Naresh Yadav from the Rajya Sabha and Somnath Chatterjee, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and Basudev Aahaiye from the Lok Sabha.

The memorandum pointed out that this legislation was enacted in 1976 with the sole purpose to fulfill certain social objectives by empowering the Governments at the Centre and the States to create a pool to undertake subsidised mass housing schemes. This purpose has been defeated with the repeal of the Act.

The present shortfall in housing stock in the country is estimated to be 40 million units. With the door closing for acquisition of landfor mass housing the Government's dismal performance in providing shelter for millions of urban poor is only likely to get worse, the memorandum pointed out.

While private builders will be now free to exploit and construct on urban land as they choose, market forces will drive them to opt for commercial and upper class residential housing only.

To avert any housing and environmental crises in cities from any further decline, the government ought to keep the initiative with itself by exercising a direct control over acquiring surplus land on cheap rates for implementing projects of mass housing schemes, the MPs felt. Under the circumstances, the Government must consider giving more teeth to the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act, limit the exemptions and plug such loopholes as have so far led to the unsuccessful implementation of the Act.

It was not the spirit of the Act, but a singular lack of political will to implement it that gave rise to the reasons cited by the Government to repeal the Act, theMPs said.