Housing panel submits report on making PMAY more ‘affordable’

LUCKNOW: Back from the tour of other states to study the model adopted by them in implementing the PM Awas Yojana (PMAY), the housing panel has submitted its report to the state government to replicate the model in Uttar Pradesh.

The state’s housing department has been given an annual target to build one lakh affordable houses under various income groups under the PMAY with the help of government housing bodies and private developers. Consequently, to study the successful roll out of schemes in other states, the housing department had constituted four teams to visit Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP and AP and submit their findings. “We have received the report from three teams. The team, which was supposed to visit Rajasthan could not go because of some compelling circumstances,” confirmed a senior housing department. He said a preliminary perusal of the studies had been made and after taking into account the respective recommendations an overall report would be prepared for making suitable amendments in the existing policy.

The PMAY has four components including a credit linked subsidy on interest (on home loan). Under Housing For All (HFA) programme providing a 30 square metre house for Rs 2.50 lakh to the economically weaker section and lower income group with private participation is also one of the component of the PMAY. Under the scheme, the Centre and state government will bear the cost of these dwelling units on a 60:40 ratio basis.

The teams sent were tasked to study and suggest sops being given by these states to attract builders and keep the Rs 2.5 lakh cap on the housing unit intact. “The land cost is a major hurdle in maintaining the price ceiling. BSP chief Mayawati could provide free EWS houses because she ensured that government land was made available free of charge by district magistrates to the developer,” said the official.

Taking a leaf from PMAY, the Akhilesh Yadav government had mooted its own Samajwadi Awasiye Yojana in 2015. The Samajwadi Party government had fixed Rs 2800 square metre as the upper limit of the construction cost under its low cost housing initiative.

Under this, the cost of a 75 square metre (800 square feet) flat was fixed at Rs 30 lakh with a bar on increase of any sort in the price of the property in future. Despite several concessions on development charges and relaxation granted in building byelaws, the scheme had failed to take off as builders found the fixed-rate proposition unviable.

UNDER THE SCHEME, THE CENTRE AND STATE GOVERNMENT WILL BEAR THE COST OF THESE DWELLING UNITS ON A 60:40 RATIO BASIS.