New Delhi: At a time when the Narendra Modi government is planning to construct another two crore houses in the next five years in rural areas, as was announced in February’s interim budget, several states and Union territories (UTs) are lagging behind in achieving targets set under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G).
Launched in 2016, the flagship housing scheme for the poor was aimed at providing 2.95 crore pucca houses with basic amenities to underprivileged people in rural areas by March 2024. Under the scheme, each beneficiary gets financial assistance of up to Rs 1.2 lakh in the plains and up to Rs 1.3 lakh in hill states/Union territories to construct houses.
At the beginning of each financial year, annual targets are set by the rural development ministry to states and UTs for the construction of pucca houses. The states have to verify details of the beneficiaries and geo-tag their existing houses before releasing the first instalment of funds to them for the construction.
Till 26 March this year, the ministry had sanctioned construction of 2.94 crore (2,94,79,938) houses, but several states and UTs have not fully constructed even half of the total sanctioned houses, according to data on the ministry’s dashboard.
For instance, in Andhra Pradesh, just 31 percent of the total sanctioned houses have been completed till 26 March, the data shows. In several northeastern states such as Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur, less than 35 percent of the sanctioned houses have been completed.
“There are several laggard states and UTs. But since almost the entire target of 2.95 crore has been sanctioned before 31 March, states can now ensure that the work is completed in the coming months. According to the PMAY-G, the houses have to be constructed within 12 months from the date of release of the first instalment of funds,” a senior ministry official said.
Of the total sanctioned houses, 2.58 crore or 87.8 percent have been completed so far. Of the 35 lakh houses yet to be constructed across India, ministry officials said, close to 11.5 lakh are in West Bengal.
The Modi government stopped funds under PMAY-G to West Bengal from 2022 onwards after “complaints were received about the state government changing the name of the central scheme to Bangla Awas Yojana… eligible families were deprived of houses and party workers were allotted houses in violation of the guidelines”, the rural development ministry said last October.
Last year, the Centre had also withheld funds to Andhra Pradesh after alleged irregularities in the implementation of the scheme, according to the senior ministry official. The sanctioned target for Andhra Pradesh is 2.46 lakh houses, of which 76,339 have been fully constructed till date.
When contacted, two senior officials from the Andhra Pradesh State Housing Corporation refused to comment on the reason behind the delay in the implementation of the scheme.
States such as Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, which have a large number of sanctioned houses, have achieved less than 88 percent of the construction target. For instance, Odisha has completed 20.8 lakh of the 27 lakh sanctioned houses and Karnataka has completed 51.7 percent of the total sanctioned houses, according to the ministry’s portal.
ThePrint has reached the rural development ministry for a comment via email and a response is awaited.
States asked to expedite work
At the empowered committee meeting between officials from the Centre and states and UTs, which concluded last week after going on for more than 20 days, the matter of delay in completion of houses under PMAY-G was raised with the state governments, according to senior ministry and state government officials.
“The targets have been sanctioned before 31 March, 2024. According to PMAY-G guidelines, the houses have to be constructed within 12 months after the first instalment is released. The houses can be constructed even after 31 March. There will be no impact on release of funds for the houses which have been sanctioned,” a second senior ministry official said.
State government officials said efforts are being made to ensure work is completed at the earliest.
For instance, in Himachal Pradesh, around 15,000 of 25,000-plus houses have so far been constructed in rural areas.
A senior official in the state’s rural development department said: “We have a pending target of more than 9,000 houses and have been asked to complete them by 30 June. We have directed our officials to ensure that work is completed at the earliest. There are multiple reasons for the delay, such as time taken in sanctioning the work at the grassroots level, weather, etc. No construction work can be done during the monsoon season.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)