E-Paper
Eye on 2024 elections, Naveen Patnaik govt announces housing scheme for rural poor
The Mo Ghara (Government Housing Assistance in Rural Areas) scheme will cover all families left out of existing schemes due to stringent eligibility criteria or insufficient budgetary allocation
BHUBANESWAR: The Naveen Patnaik government on Monday announced a housing scheme to provide financial assistance to lower and lower-middle-income households in rural areas, the Odisha government said in an official statement.
Titled Mo Ghara (Government Housing Assistance in Rural Areas) Yojana, the scheme will cover all such families who were left out of existing housing schemes due to stringent eligibility criteria or insufficient allocation, the statement said.
Under the scheme, a beneficiary can avail housing loan of up to Rs. 3 lakh which can be repaid in 10 years excluding 1 year moratorium period in easy installments. Beneficiaries from the scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, or a person with disabilities will get up to ₹40,000 financial assistance for every ₹1 lakh loan to build or expand their house while others can get up to R 30,000 financial assistance.
The government expects to cover 400,000 families over the next two years at an estimated cost of ₹2150 crore. “Banks will not charge any processing fee from the beneficiary for sanction of the loan. To further reduce the financial burden for the beneficiaries, the registration fee and stamp duties required during the mortgage of the title deed have been waived by the state Government. The charges for getting certified copies of relevant documents from the Sub-Registrar offices as required by the bank for processing of loan applications under this scheme will also be waived,” said an official of the panchayati raj department.
To be eligible, the beneficiary family should be living in a kutcha house or one pucca room with RCC roof, should not have availed of any government housing scheme of more than Rs.70,000 and the monthly income of the family should not be more than ₹25,000.
The move is seen as an effort by the ruling Biju Janata Dal to consolidate the support of tribals and Dalits ahead of the 2024 assembly elections.
Political analyst Satya Prakash Dash said there were over 10 lakh beneficiaries who were on the waiting list for housing assistance. “As per Census 2011, nearly 34 lakh households dwell in one or two-room kaccha houses which the existing schemes are unable to fulfil. As the scheme is credit-linked and subsidised by state government, it would lead to quicker completion of the houses. But more importantly, BJD would find it easy to tap tribal, Dalit and OBC votes which the BJP is eyeing,” Dash said.
“The current housing schemes like PMAY or Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana have their own set of problems in identifying beneficiaries which Mo Ghar Yojana would not have. If executed well, it can prove to be a game changer for the BJD in 2024 polls.”
