NEW DELHI: India’s Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar today interacted with the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) from 5 States namely Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh from the Doordarshan studios in New Delhi and heard their testimonies.
Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana was launched on 20th November 2016 with an aim of providing housing for all in rural areas. PMAY-G has completed three years today and on this occasion Rural development minister today interacted with the beneficiaries.
While interacting with beneficiaries across these five States, Tomar said that although a housing scheme for rural poor was in existence before the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Government, its implementation was poor and was stuck in a lot of red-tape.
He said that under the guidance of Prime Minister’s vision, PMAY-G scheme was launched on 20th November 2016 and it was made more comprehensive as it included amenities like water, gas, toilet and electricity supply in all the households. Under the PMAY-G, houses are being constructed using New Technologies. Time for Construction of Houses under the scheme has reduced to 114 days from 314 days in 2015-16 due to use of direct benefit transfer (DBT) platform. Under PMAY, the minimum size of a house has also been increased to 25 square meters.
The Union Rural Development Minister further informed that 87 lakh homes in different parts of the country have already been completed and the aim is to have 2 crore 95 lakh houses by 2022. This will complete Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of housing for all in Rural India by 2022.
Tomar further said that Government has ensured that all houses constructed under PMAY-G are designed properly by experts who have made it on the basis of topology and they are climate resistant homes. The common thing said by most beneficiaries was that their lives have been transformed after getting a ‘pucca’ house and it has boosted their self-esteem, social status and standard of living.
The main features of the scheme of PMAY-G are:
i. Identification of beneficiaries as per the housing deprivation parameters and exclusion criteria prescribed under Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 after due verification by Gram Sabha.
ii. Providing assistance for construction of 2.95 crore pucca houses for eligible rural households by March, 2022 in phases :- 1.00 crore houses in Phase I (2016-17 to 2018-19) and 1.95 crore houses in Phase II (2019-20 to 2021-22). The target set for 2019-20 is completion of 60 lakh houses, out of which target of 51.05 lakh houses have already been allocated to States/UT.
iii. Enhancement of unit assistance from Rs. 70,000 (IAY) to Rs. 1.20 lakh in plain areas and from Rs. 75,000(IAY) to Rs.1.30 lakh in Hilly States, NE States, difficult areas and IAP districts.
iv. Provision of assistance for construction of toilets amounting to Rs. 12,000/- through SBM-G, MGNREGS or any other dedicated source of funding and 90/95 days of unskilled wages under MGNREGS over and above the unit assistance.
v. Enhancement in the minimum unit size of house from 20 sq.m.(IAY) to 25 Sq.m.
vi. Facilitating willing beneficiaries to avail loan from Financial Institutions for an amount of upto Rs 70,000.