BHUBANESWAR: Irked over the slow-paced scrutiny of applications received for dwelling units under newly-launched Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban 2.0 (PMAY-U 2.0) at ULB level, the state government has issued an ultimatum to the civic bodies to speed up the verification process and submit the proposals at the earliest.
Sources in Odisha Urban Housing Mission (OUHM) said since commencement of the application process in early January, a total of 82,382 applications, including 48,598 under beneficiary-led construction (BLC) vertical, have been received till May-end. However, only around 13,925 at a measly 16.90 per cent of the applications have been verified so far. Besides, project proposals for only 14.50 pc of the applications, to the tune of 11,959 dwelling units, have been submitted to the government.
“This raises serious concern, especially when the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoUHA) has already pointed out that the total number of houses sanctioned under PMAY (U) and PMAY-U 2.0 for the state constitutes only 12 per cent of the total households as per the 2011 census and asked the state to prioritise the application verification,” said an official.
He said the ULBs have been instructed to take up an awareness programme in their areas where the sanction rate is even lower than the state average of 12 per cent. They have also been asked to take necessary steps to expedite the application verification process and submission of proposals.
As it is, only 5,328 dwelling units under BLC vertical have been sanctioned in the first meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) under PMAY-U 2.0 in March.
The state government has now asked the ULBs, where the dwelling units have been sanctioned, to take necessary measures for sanction of work order for construction of the houses.
As per the PMAY-U 2.0 manual of the OUHM, households belonging to economically weaker sections with annual income of below Rs 3 lakh, and lower income groups with annual income in the range of Rs 3 lakh to Rs 6 lakh are eligible for the scheme provided they don’t have pucca houses in the name of any of their family members anywhere in the country.
Poor scrutiny
Total applications received - 82,382
BLC applications - 48,598
Applications verified - 13,925 (16.90%)
Proposals submitted - 11,959 (14.50%)
BLC units sanctioned - 5,328