HYDERABAD: Not even a single house has been sanctioned in Telangana under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) scheme, the Ministry of Rural Development revealed in response to a question in Parliament, on Tuesday.
On the other hand all other States have sanctioned lakhs of houses. In West Bengal, 18.8 lakh houses have been constructed out of 30.3 lakh sanctioned houses. When Express contacted the State Housing Department to find out why Telangana is lagging behind, a highly placed official said the PMAY-G scheme’s guidelines were not viable with the State government’s 2BHK initiative. Under the latter, the TS has sanctioned over 2.45 lakh houses, of which 45,000 have been built and 1 lakh are nearing completion, the official said.
With an aim to provide ‘Housing for All’ by 2022, the PMAY-G scheme has sanctioned 1.65 crore houses across the country. The Central government has increased the unit assistance from Rs 70,000 to Rs 1.2 lakh in plain and Rs 75,000 to Rs 1.30 lakh in hilly States. This would be shared between the Central and State governments in a 60:40 ratio in plain areas and 90:10 in the NE States.
No Mid-Day meals for TS schoolkids in March-Aug
The Telangana government has not provided cooked food under the Mid-Day Meals scheme to government schoolchildren between March-August, 2020 revealed the Union Ministry of Education while responding to the question raised by Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy. The data suggests that the Telangana neither provided cooked food nor financial assistance to students. The data showed the number of students availing Food Security Allowance (FSA) from March to August, from all the States except Telangana and Goa. The Centre said, “Since, it is not possible to provide hot cooked meals under the prevailing circumstances, States and UTs were advised to provide FSA comprising of food grains, pulses, oil to all eligible children.”
Centre aware of regulated farming
The Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the Centre was aware of regulated farming introduced in the Telangana, on Tuesday. Answering a question raised by TRS MP G Ranjith Reddy, the Minister said: “TS government introduced regulated farming from Kharif, 2020, where farmers were encouraged to grow various crops based on market demand.”