Rural housing push with 68% hike in funds

On June 10, the government gave approval to a cabinet proposal to construct a total of 3 million houses in the next five years

New Delhi The central government will help build an additional 30 million houses in both urban and rural areas under the PM Awas scheme, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her seventh budget speech in Parliament, allocating an additional 68% funds for rural areas compared with the revised estimates of the previous budget.

On June 10, the government gave approval to a cabinet proposal to construct a total of 3 million houses in the next five years. (PTI)

Three crore additional houses under the PM Awas Yojana in rural and urban areas in the country have been announced, for which the necessary allocations are being made,” Sitharaman said on Tuesday. “The government allocated ₹54,000 crore for the rural housing programme in the FY 24-25 budget as against ₹32,000 crore in the revised estimates in the last budget.

Under the rural housing scheme, the government has constructed 2.63 dwelling units against a target of 2.94 crores. In the past few years, all PMAY (Grameen) houses came with cooking gas, water and power connections.

Presenting the interim budget in February this year, Sitharaman had announced: “Despite the challenges due to Covid, implementation of PM Awas Yojana (Grameen) continued and we are close to achieving the target of three crore houses. Two crore more houses will be taken up in the next five years to meet the requirement arising from increase in the number of families.

On June 10, the government gave approval to a cabinet proposal to construct a total of 3 million houses in the next five years, of which 20 million will be in rural areas, and 10 million in urban areas across the country.

The housing programme has worked well politically and as a developmental intervention, experts said. There was no discrimination among the beneficiaries and it addressed the multidimensional poverty by creating durable assets of brick and mortar houses. The extension is much-needed as it will cater to new families in a number of states, an official said.

Under the central government, all new PMAY (Grameen) houses are provided with a cooking gas connection under the Ujjwala scheme and electricity connection under the Saubhagya scheme.

In her address to the joint sitting of both Houses in the last session of 17th Lok Sabha, President Droupadi Murmu had said, “Construction of pucca houses under the PM Awas Yojana has enhanced the social status and dignity of the beneficiary families and giving over seventy per cent houses under PM Awas Yojana in rural areas to women as sole or joint owners have enhanced their dignity.

Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are among the top states in completing the construction of these houses.