Final PMAY target of Odisha fulfilled: Minister

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the state government is demanding sanction of an additional seven lakh houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the Centre on Tuesday said the full and final target of the the state has been fulfilled.

Replying to a question from BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, Union Minister of State for Rural Development Niranjan Jyoti said there were 18,56,652 applicants in the permanent waiting list based on the socio-economic caste census (SECC) held on 2011. Another 11,03,916 persons were included in the Awaas+ portal of the ministry taking the total number of applicants for housing assistance under PMAY-Gramin to 29,60,568.

“The Ministry has allocated full and final target of 26,95,837 houses to Odisha (including 8,17,513 from Awaas+ list) from the financial year 2016-17 till 2021-22. Out of which, the state has sanctioned 26,51,767 houses to beneficiaries and 17,17,308 houses have been completed as on March 23, 2023,” the minister said. In addition, a special project to cover 1,42,005 cyclone Fani affected households registered in Awaas+ has also been sanctioned to the state under PMAY-G.

It may be mentioned here that the ministry had opened the special window of Awaas+ twice for the state in the wake of cyclone Fani and the state government had registered 13,20,945 households in the portal. The MoRD conducted an inquiry following complaints from BJP members of parliament of the state about irregularities in implementation of PMAY-G. Over five lakh people were found ineligible for housing assistance.

On several occasion earlier, the Centre had declined to accommodate the state government’s demand for sanction of more houses. The MoRD has released Rs 15,663.26 crore as central assistance to the state under PMAY-G for construction of targeted houses from 2016-17 to 2022-23.