NEW DELHI: The government’s flagship scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY), might get a 50 per cent increase in the budget allocation this year, as the government aims to build more than two crore houses in rural and urban regions.
The target of PMAY (Rural) is to complete one crore new houses by March 31, 2019 and officials said of these, 51 lakh houses have to be completed by March 31, 2018. The government has a similar target for PMAY (Urban).
The last budget had allocated Rs 23,000 crore for PMAY (Rural) and Rs 6,042.81 crore to PMAY (Urban). Sources said this year’s budget allocation might see a jump of nearly 50 per cent as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream scheme is moving at a slow pace and more funding will help it achieve targets.
The budget announcements are going to be crucial, considering the government has only one year left before the 2019 elections.
To meet the challenge of assisting 51 lakh beneficiaries in construction of their homes by March 2018, the Ministry of Rural Development, in partnership with the State Governments, has taken many steps, including setting month-wise targets for completion of houses.
The target for completion of 10 lakh houses by November 2017 was achieved on November 29 and it is expected that 25 lakh houses will be completed by January 31, 2018; 35 lakh houses by February 28, 2018 and 51 lakh houses by March 31, 2018.
The scheme targets mostly the poor section of the society which forms a larger chunk of the vote bank in the country.