BHUBANESWAR: For an affordable home in urban area, a segment which has been struggling for years mostly due to land-related issues, the announcement of Rs 2.20 lakh crore central assistance for affordable housing of one crore units for urban poor has brought a ray of hope among around 20 lakh slum dwellers of the state.
Even as it is not clear how much assistance Odisha will get out of the central outlay, the state government is likely to get an enhanced central assistance under the scheme to cover more beneficiaries who have been waiting for years to get a pucca house.
The BJP in its manifesto has promised to construct 10 lakh houses in rural areas and five lakh housing units in urban areas under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in the next five years in the state. Sitharaman has made an allocation of Rs 10 lakh crore under the flagship scheme for both rural and urban areas.
With over 20 lakh people residing in 2,919 slums of 115 urban local bodies in the state, the previous government is claimed to have provided land rights certificates to around 2.4 lakh families out of which 40,642 beneficiaries have received financial assistance amounting to Rs 812 crore.
“The Housing and Urban Development department has planned to provide financial assistance to another 30,000 beneficiaries in the current financial year to build their house under PMAY-U. A clear picture will emerge after the state budget is placed in the Assembly,” an authoritative source said.
Admitting that the scheme is running slow due land-related issues, they said flexibility of granting the land rights to the slum households in-situ over a land up to 323 sq ft has been made. However, the progress was slow because the state was not getting desired financial support from Centre as the BJD government was executing the project under its own scheme called Biju Adarsh Colony, the source added.
“Now in government, it is to be seen how the ruling BJP is going to resolve issues pertaining to grant of land rights to slum dwellers for availing housing assistance under PMAY-G,” said an official of the department.
Under PMAY-Rural, 22.24 lakh houses have been constructed leaving another five lakh beneficiaries.