PMAY scheme: Modi government to provide 26,000 homes per day till December 2018, claims minister
Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, has said that his ministry will hand over one crore homes under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) by December 2018.
Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, has said that his ministry will hand over one crore homes under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) by December 2018. The minister claims that the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has so far handed over 51 lakh houses under the scheme.
“Today my office has sanctioned 318,000 homes taking the tally to 51 lakh houses so far,” a PIB release quoted Puri as saying at an interactive session organised by Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) and Forum Indian Development Cooperation on Monday.
Only a little over 180 days are left till December 2018. If Puri’s claim is to be believed, then PM Narendra Modi-led Union government will have to hand over 49,00,000 (49 lakh) houses under the scheme by the end of this year. The massive target means the government would have to deliver PMAY houses at the rate of over 26,000 per day till the end of 2018. This, however, contradicts Puri’s statement, as per the statement put out by the PIB.
The release, quoting the minister said: “He (Puri) said that his Ministry sanctions almost 3-5 lakh home every month.” Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that even if the ministry manages to deliver 5 lakh homes every month starting July, it would still fall short by around 19 lakh from the government’s ambitious target.
In another report, PTI quoted Puri as saying on Monday that the Union government is expected to complete the PMAY target of building 11.2 million (1.12 crore) houses by mid-2019. The ambitious target was initially set for 2022. However, the government aims to complete the target years in advance.
“With such level of construction activity, we expect to complete building 11.2 million homes under the scheme by June-July of 2019 as against the original target of 2022,” the news agency quoted Puri as saying.
The Union minister further said that Modi government sanctioned Rs 6,500 crore each in the past two budgets and there is no shortage of funds.
On June 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had interacted with beneficiaries of PMAY through video bridge.
A PMO release dated June 5 said, “The Government has so far given sanctions to build more than 47 lakh houses in urban areas, which is 4 times more than the sanctions given by the previous government in 10 years. Similarly, sanctions have been given to build more than one crore houses in the rural areas compared to 25 lakh sanctions by the previous government in its last 4 years. Government has also been able to reduce the time needed to build a house from 18 months to 12 months, thereby saving about 6 months.”
The government has planned to construct around 3 crore houses in rural areas and 1 crore in urban areas under the scheme.