NEW DELHI: The Centre will launch a revamped Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Grameen (PMAY-G) after general elections to build another 20 million affordable houses in the next five years with enhanced financial assistance. With the current affordable rural housing scheme coming to an end in March, the Budget for 2024-25 unveiled a plan to build additional houses to meet the requirement arising from an increase in the number of families.
Under PMAY-G, the beneficiaries are provided financial assistance of Rs 1.2 lakh in plain areas and Rs 1.3 lakh in hilly states (including Northeastern states and UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh), difficult areas and Integrated Action Plan (IAP) districts. Under the revamped scheme, the cash support will likely be enhanced to around Rs 2.3-2.4 lakh/housing unit.
The enhanced assistance would likely be done given the cost escalation. The construction of new housing units over an extended period will also boost the rural economy.
To achieve the target of “Housing for All” in rural areas, the Centre rolled out PMAY-G on April 1, 2016, to assist in constructing 29.5 million pucca houses with basic amenities. Out of the overall target, 2.95 crore houses have been sanctioned to states, out of which, 25.8 million houses have been completed as of March 15, 2024.
The government has saved around Rs 22,000 crore in PMAY-G in the current financial year as some states were not eligible to get funds, either for failing the eligibility conditions or not implementing the scheme.
The government has budgeted Rs 54,487 crore for PMAY-G in FY24, the highest annual allocation after the launch of the scheme in 2016. The allocation was revised down to Rs 32,000 crore for FY24.
West Bengal, one of the big beneficiaries of the scheme in previous years, won’t get any funds for the scheme in FY24 due to violation of the norms for centrally sponsored schemes such as branding. Telangana and Puducherry, which are not implementing PMAY-G, will also not receive any funds. Several other states are also unable to fully utilise the funds, sources said.
Source: The Financial Express
