BHUBANESWAR: Even as Opposition BJP accused the ruling BJD of promoting corruption in selection of beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the State Government on Monday claimed to have completed construction of one lakh houses under different schemes in the last four months amid Covid-19 pandemic.
“One lakh houses have been completed in different districts as on August 5. Around 44,000 houses were constructed during the same period last year,” said Panchayati Raj Principal Secretary DK Singh after a high-level meeting.
The State has set an ambitious target for construction of 8,06,329 houses during the current financial year and work orders were issued for 3,57,408 houses. Process has been expedited to issue work orders for the balance units, including 57,257 landless families.
The Centre has allocated 6,89,990 housing units for the State in 2020-21. Taking a district-wise review of progress of rural housing schemes, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy asked the department to meet the target by the end of the financial year.
Director (Special Projects) Rajesh Patil said, “Around 57,000 families in the waiting list have been found landless. Sanction of houses in their favour has been put on hold due to land ownership issue”. District Collectors were asked to provide homestead land to these families from Government land. They were also advised to refer the cases to the Government where land could not be settled within the existing revenue laws.
Singh highlighted the need for enhancement of mandays during rainy season to provide wage employment to labour force. On an average, around 8.5 lakh mandays were created per day in the State till August 5. While around 1.5 lakh mandays per day is being created by line departments, the balance mandays were generated by the Panchayati Raj department.
The Chief Secretary directed the line departments to create at least five lakh mandays per day by end of this month and the balance 10 lakh mandays would be generated through PR department. The Collectors were advised to sanction at least 5-6 projects through the line departments for creation of more mandays.
Housing target
8,06,329 housing target during current fiscal
Work orders issued for 3,57,408 houses
Centre has allocated 6,89,990 housing units
57,000 families found landless