New Delhi: With just five months left for the completion of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) target, a large number of states and Union Territories are lagging behind in achieving the target as just 35 percent of sanctioned houses completed between April and June.
A flagship scheme of the Modi government, the PMAY-G was launched in April 2016 with a target to construct 2.95 crore pucca houses with basic amenities for the underprivileged sections in rural areas by 31 March, 2024.
Performance of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra and Rajasthan was rated ‘very good’ as they met ‘90 percent or above of target’ set for the first quarter of the financial year 2023-24 (April-June), according to a report by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
As per the report released last week, 14.18 lakh houses were to be constructed in states and union territories between April and June, but just 4.97 lakh (just 35 percent of the quarterly target) were done. According to the report, nine states and UTs — including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Manipur, Mizoram — didn’t report the work done.
The MoSPI’s progress report of the Twenty Point Programme-2006 categorised the progress of states and UTs that met less than 80 percent targets as “poor”.
Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir are among states/UTs reporting less than 20 percent of the set target for April-June period. In Odisha, as per the report, just 3,455 houses were constructed as against the set target of 2,59,372.
In contrast, states such as Assam and Rajasthan achieved much more than the set target. For instance, the target for the first quarter for Assam was 97,171 houses whereas the state completed 2,88,036 (296 percent) houses.
The PMAY-G was among the few schemes logging good progress between April and December 2022, according to a previous MoSPI progress report released in April. States and UTs had achieved 92 percent of the set target within the first six months of the last financial year, it said.
In August, the government informed the Lok Sabha that close to 2.41 crore houses were constructed as on 2 August in rural areas. The rural development ministry had sanctioned 2.93 crore houses till August.
49 lakh houses yet to be sanctioned
The ministry, senior officials said, will soon hold a review meeting with states and UTs to expedite the process to sanction the remaining 49 lakh houses.
Last week, Union rural development minister Giriraj Singh told a press conference that 2.45 crore houses were constructed till 30 September.
“The ministry recently sanctioned two lakh more houses to Uttar Pradesh. A review meeting with other states will be held soon. We will be able to complete all the 2.95 lakh houses by March next year. It is the state governments that have to take the initiative,” said a senior ministry official.
As per the ministry’s dashboard for PMAY-G as on 24 October, 2.94 crore houses were sanctioned of which 2.47 crore are constructed.
(Edited by Tony Rai)