Rural housing targets unmet due to Covid curbs: Officials

EMPLOYING MIGRANTS 348k houses built in first quarter against 1.5mn target, officials expect activity to speed up

NEW DELHI: As many as 348,000 houses have been built under the Centre’s flagship rural housing scheme in the first quarter of the financial year against the annual target for 6.15 million units, officials aware of the matter said, indicating the impact of sweeping Covid-19 lockdown imposed in late March and lack of preparedness of states.

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (Rural), or PMAY, is key to the government’s efforts to ensure housing for all.

It is among the schemes that were expected to provide employment to millions of workers, who have returned to their homes in rural areas after losing their jobs because of the lockdown.

The officials said the housing scheme was hit when the pandemic halted economic activities and just one-fifth of the quarterly target of 1.5 million houses for the summer could be completed. West Bengal alone has reported completion of 110,000 houses, or about one-third of the total houses built, from Apriljune, followed by Bihar (62,393) and Rajasthan (32,381). Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand have built 4,000 units each; Maharashtra 28,000 and Odisha 28,405.

The annual targets for these states are much higher. West Bengal has to build 923,000 units and Bihar 800,000.

The officials said the construction work is likely to get slower because of the ongoing Monsoon season.

They are hopeful of a faster pace later and that the annual target can be met.

The officials pointed out that very little work could be done in April due to the strict lockdown, which has since been eased. They added there was also a lot of confusion at the state or district levels about commencing work and setting targets during the pandemic.

The officials said this resulted in a tepid beginning of one of the key welfare programmes this financial year.

PMAY is a target-based housing programme for the poor and a key component of the government’s aim to have a vast number of individual beneficiaries. The government has focused on creating more individual beneficiaries through various welfare schemes.

PMAY is an improved version of the Congress-era Indira Awas

Yojna. As many as 17.2 million houses have been built under it since 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi first came to power.

The scheme also helps create jobs under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) as 90-day work under it is allowed to build houses.

The Centre has focused on

PMAY to bolster MGNREGS, under which 100-day assured employment annually is provided to at least one member of every poor rural household, as the construction of small rural house requires three to four workers.

There have been restrictions on large-scale public works involving hundreds of workers because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The Centre plans to utilise skills of migrants forced to return to their homes to primarily build houses under PMAY and roads.

PMAY has been among the government’s most popular welfare schemes that are widely believed to have helped Prime Minister Modi to return to power in 2019.