BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government claimed to have constructed over 26 lakh houses in rural areas under different schemes in the last six years, it has to convert another 12 lakh kutcha houses of poor families to pucca structures to achieve the ‘housing for all’ target by 2022. After launching the re-structured rural housing scheme Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Gramin (PMAY-G) in November 2016, the State had a target to complete 24.23 lakh houses by 2022.
The target was fixed after registration of beneficiaries including geo-tagging and verification of their accounts. Construction began in 2017-18. Status of the rural housing progress in the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) dashboard states that Odisha has completed construction of 12,54,391 houses as on date against a target of 24,23,012. The achievement is 51.77 percent (pc) of the target. The Ministry had sanctioned over 9.92 lakh houses for Odisha in the first phase in 2016-17 against which, more than 10 lakh people had registered their names for availing the financial assistance. The State converted over 8.98 lakh houses in three years with a financial assistance of `11,760 crore as Central share.
As per the Ministry report, Odisha Government constructed 3,65,403 units in 2016-17, 3,09,329 units in 2017-18 and 2,23,699 housing units in 2018-19. In the second phase, MoRD set a target of over 14.30 lakh housing units for which, over 8.19 people have registered to get housing assistance. The Ministry sanctioned 7.52 lakh housing units for 2019-20 out of which 3,56,243 houses were completed with Central assistance of `5,552 crore.
The Centre has allocated 6,89,990 housing units for 2020- 21 and requested the State to earmark at least 60 pc of the target for the scheduled categories and another 15 pc for minorities as per the 2011 Census data. The State has, however, set an ambitious target for construction of more 8,06,329 houses during the current year. Against this target, so far 3,57,408 houses are under different stages of completion and construction of remaining houses including those for 57,257 landless families has been expedited.
According to a recent review of the rural housing scheme by Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy, the State completed the construction of 26,18, 497 houses in the last six years. The State Government is providing housing assistance under Mo Kudia and District Mineral Foundation fund. The exact number of beneficiaries covered under the State scheme is not available.