NEW DELHI: In an apparent bid to woo the middle class ahead of the general elections, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a scheme to help them buy or build their houses.
She further stated that the government had set the target of two crore additional houses for the rural poor in the next five years under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana–Gramin (PMAY-G). “Our Government will launch a scheme to help deserving sections of the middle class living in rented houses, or slums, or chawls and unauthorized colonies to buy or build their own houses,” said the minister while presenting a vote on account for 2024-25, also known as interim budget.
In her speech, the FM also highlighted that the implementation of the PMAY-G continued despite the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“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,” Sitharaman added.
The PMAY-G was devised in line with the Government’s commitment to provide ‘Housing for All’ by 2022 in the rural areas with effect from April 2016. The scheme aims at providing a pucca house with basic amenities to all houseless households living in kutcha and dilapidated houses. The target was to construct 2.95 crore pucca houses with basic amenities by March 2024.
According to the rural development, more than 2.94 crore houses have already been sanctioned to the beneficiaries by various states and union territories (UTs) and construction of 2.50 crore houses has also been completed by September.
The minister also stated that the Government in the last 10 years had endeavoured to provide each a house, water, electricity, cooking gas and bank account as part of the inclusive development.
“Our humane and inclusive approach to development is a marked and deliberate departure from the earlier approach of ‘provisioning up-to-village level’. Development programmes, in the last ten years, have targeted each and every household and individual, through ‘housing for all’, ‘har ghar jal’, electricity for all, cooking gas for all, bank accounts and financial services for all, in record time,” Sitharaman said.