The Centre has asked all states to sanction pending houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) within a week by February 17, and complete 24 lakh houses within the next 50 days, after the scheme received a record allocation of Rs 79,950 crore in the budget earlier this month.
News18 has a copy of the Centre’s letter to states. “…request for your personal intervention to ensure sanctioning of all remaining targets till February 17, 2023,” says the Centre’s letter written to principal secretaries of all the states on February 7.
Nearly 2.95 crore houses for the poor will be completed under the scheme by March 2024, before the general elections. The scheme got a whopping 66% hike in allocation in the present budget. So far, 2.14 crore houses have been built, leaving a big challenge of completing nearly 80 lakh houses in the next 13 months.
What is however bothering the Centre is that out of these 80 lakh houses, 11.18 lakh houses are yet to be sanctioned by states as on February 1, on the day the Union Budget was presented.
“Despite all the efforts and follow-up at various levels with the states, 11.18 lakh houses are yet to be sanctioned,” the Centre has written, asking for expedited action. “It is informed that this is the last opportunity for the state for sanctioning of pending houses to avoid withdrawal of targets.”
States like Bihar and Karnataka have the maximum gap of nearly 3 lakh houses that are not sanctioned yet. The PM Awas Scheme (Grameen) is a centrally-sponsored scheme with contribution from states.
Complete 24 Lakh Houses in Next 50 Days
The letter also says a set target to complete 2.38 crore houses has been fixed for March 31, 2023. “To achieve this target, it is important that entire houses received 1st installment till date, but are not yet completed, are completed by March 31, 2023,” the letter says. This means nearly 24 lakh houses are to be completed within the next 50 days as so far about 2.14 crore houses are complete.
The maximum number of houses built under the PM Awas Yojana –Gramin were 40 lakh houses in the first financial year of the scheme in 2016-17. Only 30 lakh houses could be completed in 2021-22. The scheme is now in mission mode given the challenging deadline and the record allocation.
States like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Assam and Gujarat will be the focus areas in 2023-24 as they are lagging under the scheme and account for the maximum number of incomplete houses.
Only 47,000-odd houses out of 2.56 lakh targeted houses in Andhra Pradesh have been completed so far while only 1.01 lakh houses out of a target of 3 lakh houses have been completed in Karnataka. Nearly 13 lakh houses are pending completion in West Bengal and 3.5 lakh houses are still to be completed in Tamil Nadu. Over two lakh houses are pending in Gujarat too.
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