Oppn states key to rural housing plan

PMAY(G) Govt depends on MP, Rajasthan, Bengal to meet target

NEW DELHI: The Centre’s flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) depends heavily on key non-bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp)-ruled states to meet its targets for this year — these states account for around 60% of houses that have to be built in 2019-2020 under the housing scheme for rural poor, government officials said citing government data.

The scheme was expanded in February and the government has set itself the target of building 15.5 million houses under the scheme over the next three years to ensure that every poor person in rural areas has a house by the time the country celebrates 75 years of Independence in 2022. PMAY(G) has been among the government’s most popular welfare programmes believed to have contributed to the BJP’S return to power at the Centre.

The Centre has to count on Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh (MP), Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh as well as West Bengal (ruled by TMC), Tamil Nadu (ruled by the AIADMK), and Odisha (ruled by the BJD) to achieve targets set under the scheme.

The officials cited above said the six big states have been allotted 2.93 million out of 5.054 million (or nearly 60%) houses the government wants to build in the current financial year. They added that West Bengal and MP have been allotted the highest quotas of 8.3 lakh houses each.

The Centre decides the quotas under the scheme after evaluating the demand and the number of poor people without concrete or permanent homes in states.

The officials said Tamil Nadu and Odisha have been allotted quotas of 2 lakh and 5.65 lakh houses respectively. Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have been given targets of building 3.6 lakh and 1.5 lakh houses. Among states ruled by the Bjp-led NDA, Bihar has been given a quota of 8 lakh houses, Jharkhand 3.2 lakh and Maharashtra 2.9 lakh.

MP last month surrendered about 75% of its quota, citing financial constraints, dealing a major blow to the scheme. When a state surrenders its quota, it basically means it communicates its inability to meet the target.

Bihar, too, has reduced its quota by 20,000. Two Bjp-ruled states, Maharashtra and UP, have conveyed to the Centre that they have cut their targets by 5,000 and 2,000 houses, according to people aware of the development who asked not to be named.

Under the housing scheme, ~1.5 lakh is provided for each dwelling unit. Under the plan, the states provide 40% of the money needed, while the Centre pays the remaining 60%. In hilly states like in the Northeast and Uttarakhand, the Centre provides 90% of funding.

Rural development secretary Amarjeet Sinha, who last week briefed Parliament’s Estimates Committee about the scheme’s progress, said some states are giving additional money to beneficiaries to buy land. “Maharashtra has a scheme which gives ~50,000 for land purchase while Bihar has started giving ~60,000...,” he said.

MP ’s development commissioner, Gauri Singh, said earlier this month that while the target has been reduced, “the state will work with similar zeal and enthusiasm as it worked for phase 1 of PMAY.” TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee, also a member of the estimates committee, said that the Centre must also highlight the success of the states in implementing such schemes. “Some people only talk of the Gujarat model. But look at West Bengal. It has performed very well in many rural schemes,” he added.

Former rural development secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra maintained that while centre designs a scheme, “it is the states that execute them. They identify beneficiaries, allot land, ensure payments, give their shares.”

THE GOVERNMENT HAS SET ITSELF THE TARGET OF BUILDING 15.5 MILLION HOUSES UNDER THE SCHEME OVER THE NEXT THREE YEARS