Budget: Bigger PMAY spread raises Odisha’s hope of ‘housing for all’ by 2024
BHUBANESWAR: With the state and Centre at loggerheads over the allotment of houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the 66 per cent increase in the outlay for the scheme in the Union Budget for 2023-24 has brightened the prospect of Odisha covering all left out eligible beneficiaries and achieving the objective of ‘housing for all’ by 2024.
The state government which has recently released a provisional list of 9.59 lakh PMAY beneficiaries inviting objection from the public has been demanding another seven lakh houses to the Centre.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sanction of 15 lakh houses against which the latter released 8.17 lakh houses in 2021. The persistent demand of the ruling BJD to open the special window of Awaas+ for the inclusion of these left-out beneficiaries has been rejected by the Ministry of Rural Development.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech on Wednesday announced an increased allocation of Rs 79,590 crore for PMAY which is 66 per cent more than the Rs 48,000 crore provision made in the last fiscal.
The budgetary allocation for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) for the rural poor for the ensuing financial year is Rs 54,487 crore, an increase of 12 per cent against last year's allocation. However, the Centre has slashed the allocation for PMAY-Urban from Rs 28,708 crore to Rs 25,103 crore.
The Centre has so far sanctioned 25,48,775 houses to the rural poor of Odisha out of which the state government has completed the construction of 17,09,101 houses as of date.
The flagship programme launched in June 2015 with an objective to provide housing for all was originally scheduled to be completed by March 2022. However, the Centre extended the deadline to March 2024 following requests from many states.