The National Democratic Alliance government wants to construct 18 million additional rural houses — fitted with connections for electricity and cooking gas — in the next three years to further boost the delivery of its key welfare schemes, according to senior officials familiar with the matter.
The popularity of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY), a modified version of the United Progressive Alliance’s Indira Awas Yojna, has prompted the Centre to set a target of constructing 6 million houses annually for the next three years at a higher pace than the current rate of construction.
The government has earmarked a total cost of ~2.6 lakh crore to build these houses, out of which Centre will provide ~1.8 lakh crore and the rest will come from states. Beneficiaries are provided ~1.6 lakh to construct a house and a toilet as per the scheme’s provisions. The construction of a toilet is mandatary.
Achirangshu Acharya, an economist with Viswabharati University, said: “The three key schemes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi — Swachh Bharat, Ujjwala and PM Awas Scheme — are immensely beneficial for rural India to build toilets and houses and get cooking gas connections. And what is perhaps more important is that in all three schemes, the government has actually delivered.”
Read more of this in a report by Saubhadra Chatterji published in Hindustan Times...
