Modi’s ‘housing for all’ by 2022 in jeopardy

The ambitious target of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide ‘housing for all’ by 2022 under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) seems to be in serious jeopardy, since as many as 14 states, where the BJP is directly in power or is in alliance with a regional party, have not sanctioned a single unit for construction in 2018-19, which was the last year of the first phase of the scheme.

These 14 laggard states are Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Bihar, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland, according to official data available with The Asian Age. Other than these 14 states, there are six more states, which have failed to open their account in terms of sanctioning housing units for construction under PMAY-G during 2018-19.

Of those six states, interestingly, Telangana is one state, which has failed to sanction a single housing unit for construction under PMAY-G, ever since the inception of the scheme in 2016-17.

In other words, the state has had zero participation in it between 2016-17 and 2018-19.

The remaining five states, which failed to sanction even a single housing unit for construction under the scheme, include Jammu and Kashmir — where till last year the BJP was in power in alliance with the PDP, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Sikkim, and Punjab.

On the brighter side, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha are the best performers in terms of sanctioning and completing houses under the scheme.

The conversion percentage of these states has been close to 90 per cent.

Under PMAY-G, one crore houses were to be constructed for the rural poor in the first phase i.e. between 2016-17 and 201819. However, during 201819, out of the 29 states, an astounding 20 aforementioned states failed to sanction even a single housing unit for construction as part of the scheme.

The Prime Minister is quite bullish about achieving the ‘housing for all’ target by 2022 (which would be the 75th year of Independence) and had recently directed all state chief secretaries to ensure that the target is met.

In the second phase of the scheme, which would run between 2019-20 and 2021-22, two crore houses are to be constructed for the rural poor. Thus, a total of three crore houses are to be constructed under PMAY-G in six years time.