Housing for all: Centre to build 1cr houses by 2019 under PMAY-G

Yesterday, the government announced having given approval for the construction of one crore houses with the financial implication of Rs 81,975 crore for the period 2016-17 to 2018-19. This move is in alignment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Housing for All' vision by the year 2022. In response to a question asked in the Lok Sabha, the Minister of State for Rural Development Ram Kripal Yadav said that there are around four crore rural households facing house deprivation according to the provisional figures of Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011.

According to the Press Information Bureau(PIB), 2.95 crore more houses need to be constructed with an anticipated variation of ± 10 per cent to achieve the objective by 2022. This estimate also accounts the houses that were constructed under the Indira Aawas Yojana (IAY) and state-sponsored housing schemes since 2011.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana-Grameen (PMAY-G), one crore houses have been targeted for construction in its first phase from 2016-17 to 2018-19. The target for the next phase till 2022 will be decided once the verification and finalisation of permanent wait lists based on SECC 2011 data by all states and union territories is done. Ram Kripal Yadav said that a National Technical Support Agency (NTSA) for Rural Housing will be set up at a national level to provide technical support in achieving the target.

There are more features that have been incorporated into PMAY-G's scheme architecture to achieve the vision. To meet the expenditure for construction of houses, sufficient financial resources have been made available in the form of budgetary support and borrowing from NABARD. Assistance in the form of electronic transfer under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to resolve problems of delayed payments and expedite completion is another feature.

Comprehensive online monitoring will also be conducted through the MIS-AwaasSoft scheme. A mobile app, AwaasApp, will help with the inspection and geo-tagging of houses to reduce any delay. A programme involving training, assessment, and certification will also help increase the number of trained rural masons. Programme Management Unit (PMUs) will be set up at the state and sub-state level to review progress on a daily basis, provide requisite technical support and facilitation, and plug gaps in implementation using administrative funds available under the scheme.

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