BHUBANESWAR: With only 11 months to go to achieve the goal of 'Housing for All', the State government has only completed 62 per cent (pc) of its construction target under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G).
"The State has achieved overall completion of 15,10,010 houses against a cumulative target of 24,23,012 houses. The State had committed to complete 1.75 lakh houses by March 31, 2021, details of which are yet to be furnished," said a report of the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).
The Centre launched the restructured rural housing scheme PMAY-G on November 20, 2016 with the objective to provide pucca house with basic amenities to all rural families who are homeless or living in kutcha or dilapidated houses by the end of March 2022.
The selection of beneficiaries through a three-stage validation (Socio Economic Caste Census 2011, Gram Sabha and geo-tagging) has ensured selection of the poorest of the poor under PMAY-G. However, the selection of beneficiaries in the State was mired in controversy after detection of a large number of ineligible making into the permanent wait list (PWL) prepared by the Panchayati Raj department.
A recent review of the progress of this flagship scheme by MoRD during approval of the annual action plan for 2021-22 revealed that the State has completed construction of 9,21,941 houses against a target of 9,92,558 houses in Phase-I and 5,80,534 houses against a Phase-II target of 14,30,454 houses by the end of February.
However, CM Naveen Patnaik requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sanction 14.94 lakh special houses for providing houses to 7.87 lakh Fani affected families and 6.07 lakh eligible beneficiaries left out from the PWL in 16 non-Fani affected districts.
With an unspent balance of Rs 1,396.65 crore with the State, the Centre sanctioned Rs 3,810 crore which includes the State share of Rs 1,524 crore for the current fiscal. The State has made a budgetary allocation of Rs 3,000 crore for rural housing.
According to the Ministry, Odisha was among the few states that used the scheme to provide employment opportunities for migrant workers who returned to their villages during the crisis. The State completed construction of 10.5 pc of its 2020-21 target and began work on at least 85 pc of those for which money was sanctioned.
PMAY-G status
9,92,558 houses targeted in Phase-I
9,21,941 houses completed
14,30,454 houses targeted in Phase-II
5,80,534 houses finished