Bihar looks to turn migrants’ return into opportunity to complete PMAY homes

PMAY-G is the Central rural development ministry’s flagship scheme, which helps homeless poor families and those living in kutcha houses with less than two rooms, to construct a pucca house.

Bihar is looking to migrant workers’ return to the state amid the current wave of Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity to finish at least 40,000 Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G) homes allotted to the workforce in the last few years.

PM Narendra Modi pointed out last September that PMAY homes were built more efficiently during the first wave of coronavirus with 18 lakh houses constructed across the country during the pandemic. (Bloomberg)

“All the districts have a list of migrant workers who were allotted funds under PMAY(G) in the last few years. But these units have not been completed for various reasons including the long absence of the beneficiaries from the state,” said a senior RDD official engaged in implementation of the housing scheme. He said all deputy development commissioners (DDCs) in the state were instructed to get the work finished this time.

PMAY-G is the rural development ministry’s flagship scheme, which helps homeless poor families and those living in kutcha houses with less than two rooms, to construct a pucca house in a minimum of 25 square metres area. For Maoist areas, the government’s assistance is ₹1.3 lakh per house while for non-Maoist areas, it is Rs. 1.2 lakh, which is paid in three instalments. In addition, ₹30,000 is paid to the beneficiaries to meet the cost of engaging workers for construction under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

PM Narendra Modi pointed out last September that PMAY homes were built more efficiently during the first wave of coronavirus with 18 lakh houses constructed across the country during the pandemic. He listed migrant workers’ return to their homes as a big factor behind construction finishing in 45-60 days, compared to the previous average of 125 days.

Bihar’s principal secretary of the rural development department, Arvind Chaudhary said a large number of unfinished units, especially those sanctioned to migrant workers, were at least 50% complete. “These units could be finished in the coming months by migrant beneficiaries as they are now staying in the state,” he said.

However, the lockdown in the state, following the resurgence of Covid cases since April, has slowed down the construction of the low cost units in rural areas, officials said. This has already impacted the target of completing over 6 lakh unfinished units under Mission Completion drive, launched in January this year.

“Construction material and workers are not easily available due to the restrictions [during the current lockdown]. We had set a target of completing 6 lakh pending units by May or June. But that looks unachievable now and could be moved to the end of this year,” said a rural development department official.

In Bihar, a total of 2.6m PMAY homes were sanctioned, of which, around 1m units were in different stages of completion. The Mission Completion drive targeted completion of 490,000 unfinished units in three months’ time, however, only 4.20 lakh units were completed by March 30, the official added.

RDD principal secretary hopes the pace of work would gain momentum once the restrictions are eased up after Covid cases decline. “We are hopeful that by September we will complete all unfinished units. In the past few months, we have completed one lakh units/month on an average. We will accelerate it now,” he said.