PMAY-G Only 59% houses built in last 4 years, phase-II still to take off

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir administration has miserably failed to achieve the targets under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G), a social welfare flagship programme, initiated by Government of India (GoI) to provide houses for rural and poor people.
While the government could manage to construct a little over half of the houses approved four years ago in the first phase, the second phase has seen only 82 constructions of over 35 thousand houses approved.
The Ministry of Rural Development is implementing PMAY-G since April 1st 2016, with an aim to provide ‘Housing for All’ by 2022. However, the second phase of the scheme approved last year is yet to take-off in Jammu and Kashmir while only 59 percent of target has been achieved under first phase during 2016-2018.
“In 2019-20, J&K government has setup target of constructing 62932 houses across the Union Territory. Out of these, the centre had approved 35241.
“Owing to the casual approach adopted by concerned authorities only 82 houses have been completed so far,” the sources informed The News Now.
They added that not only this, the authorities have miserably failed to achieve the targets sanctioned under the first phase of flagship scheme. “Only 59 percent targets have been achieved so far under the first phase of flagship scheme 2016-2018,” they said.
“Under the first phase government had setup target of 38772. Out of these, the centre had approved 33087. The casual approach of government can be gauged from the fact that the only 19597 houses have been completed so far in last 4 years,” they added.
It is pertinent to mention here that the under PMAY-G, beneficiaries are provided an enhanced unit assistance of Rs 1.20 lakh in plains and Rs 1.30 lakh in hilly states, difficult areas and Integrated Action Plan (IAP) districts for construction of a pucca house.
In addition, there is provision of 90/95 persondays of unskilled labour wages through convergence with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and Rs 12,000 for construction of toilet through convergence with Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin (SBM-G), MGNREGS or any other dedicated source of funding. At present, there is no proposal for enhancing the unit assistance under PMAY-G.
For households, who though eligible as per the provisions of the scheme, could not be included in the Permanent Wait List (PWL) of PMAY-G prepared on the basis of SECC 2011 data, an exercise was conducted across the country for identifying such households and capturing their details through the mobile application “Awaas+”.
A total of 3.67 crore households has been uploaded on Awaas+ from across the country. The Ministry has constituted an Expert Committee for analysis of “Awaas+” data.