‘For every ` released by my Govt, full 100p reach poor’
JUJWA (Gujarat): Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that every paisa of a rupee released by his Government reaches the poor as there is no place for middlemen and asserted that his endeavour is to provide every Indian family a home of its own by 2022. In an apparent jibe at late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s famous comment about only 15 paise of every one rupee released by the Centre reaching the targetted beneficiary, Modi said, “If one rupee is released from Delhi, the entire 100 paise (now) reach the house of the poor.”
Addressing a public gathering in this Gujarat village after a collective ‘e-gruha pravesh’ (online house warming) event for beneficiaries of the Prime Minister’s Housing Scheme for Rural areas, Modi said that people now do not have to pay bribes to avail benefits of the Centre’s flagship housing scheme. Modi said that he dreams of every family owning a house of its own by 2022 when the nation will celebrate 75 years of independence.
The erstwhile rural housing scheme, Indira Awaas Yojana was restructured into Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-gramin (PMAYG), which was launched by Modi in November 2016. As part of the government’s
‘Housing for All by 2022’ scheme, targets have been set to complete one crore new pucca houses in rural areas by March 2019 and 2.95 crore by 2022.
According to information available on the Rural Development Ministry website, 18.22 lakh houses were completed under the erstwhile scheme in 2015-16 while the number rose to over 32 lakh in 2016-17 and 44.54 lakh in 2017-18 after taking
into account houses built under the new scheme and completion of incomplete houses started under the previous scheme. The scheme aims to provide a pucca house with basic amenities to all houseless families and those living in kutcha and dilapidated houses by 2022.
It provides unit assistance of Rs 1.20 lakh in plains and Rs 1.30 lakh in hilly areas, besides other benefits. The assistance cost is shared between the central and state government in the ratio of 60:40 in plains and 90:10 for North Eastern and Himalayan states. “While talking to the women beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, I was watching the houses behind them. Even you would be wondering how such good quality houses were built under that scheme,” Modi said, referring to his interaction through video conferencing with some beneficiaries.