Over 1 Lakh Houses Under PMAY-G Diverted to UP After 24 States and UTs Fail to Sanction Them

Context:

The Union Government has diverted the allocation of 1.44 lakh houses under PMAY-G from about 24 States and UTs to U.P. as they missed the deadline 30 June 2023 to sanction them.

Overview of the News:

The Union Government has set a target of construction about 2.95 crore houses under PMAY-G Scheme ahead of the Lok Sabha elections by 2024.  The construction of about 2.04 crore houses were allocated to the states based on the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data and remaining 91 lakh houses were allocated based on a survey called Awaas+ conducted by the government in 2018 and 2019 to identify those beneficiaries who claimed to have been left out under the 2011 SECC.

About 24 States and UTs failed to sanction a total of 1.44 lakh houses before the deadline of 30 June. On the other hand, UP completed the target of construction of 34.74 lakh houses and sought the government’s approval for construction of additional houses.

About PMAY-G:

PMAY-G was first started in 1996 in the name of Indira Awaas Yojna but certain gaps were identified in this scheme by CAG in 2014. To address these gaps in the rural housing program and in view of the government’s commitment to providing ‘Housing to All’ by 2022, the IAY has been re-launched as the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojna Gramin (PMAY-G) on 1^st April 2016.

Objective of PMAY-G:

The main aim of PMAY-G is to provide a pucca house with all basic amenities to all houseless householders. The immediate objective of this scheme is to cover 1,000 crore households living in the kutcha house/dilapidated house in three years from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Salient Features of PMAY-G:

• The minimum size of the house has been increased to 25 sq. mt (from 20 sq.mt.).
• The unit assistance has been increased from 70,000 to Rs.1.20 lakh in plain areas (sharing ratio between central and the state is 60:40) and from Rs.75,000 to Rs.1.30 lakh for Northern and Himalayan areas ( sharing ratio is 90:10).
• It also promotes other schemes such as Swachcha Bharat Mission, MNREGA, Ujjawal Yojna etc. to provide additional benefits to the beneficiaries.
• It uses geo-tagging and Aadhar linked payments to ensure transparency and accountability in the implementation process.

Challenges:

• The central and the state government often delay the release of the fund which led to delay in construction activity.
• The inadequate verification of the beneficiary can be challenging which leads to exclusion of the eligible households.
• The quality of construction is often compromised due to lack of skilled labor.
• Lack of awareness among the beneficiaries.

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