‘20L HOUSES FOR URBAN POOR’

NEW DELHI: The construction of over 20 lakh affordable houses for urban poor in 4,720 cities and towns has been approved under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (Urban) launched two years ago, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said on Monday.

The scale of housing activity has picked up in the three years of the Narendra Modi government, the minister said while participating in a foundation laying ceremony for 1,09,000 houses under the Yojna in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijaywada town.

The significance of this scale of housing activity is marked by the fact that the previous UPA regime had approved the construction of only 13,82,768, houses during its 10-year rule, he said.

“If something done in 10 years by others could be achieved in just under three years, I think it is good enough evidence on ground of being a government with a difference,” the minister was quoted as saying in a statement.

Naidu termed the goal of ensuring housing for all by 2020 as a “challenging task” and expected the political and administrative leaderships in the states and city governments to rise to the occasion.

“The Central government has done all that it could do in the form of putting in place an enabling ecosystem and will fulfill its commitment of central assistance,” he said.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu attended the function.