Over half the homes sanctioned under the BJP-led Centre’s flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) housing scheme have been delivered and the rest are under various stages of completion, Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday.
Mr. Puri’s comments came on the sidelines of the PMAY-U Awards 2021 — scheduled annually to recognise the contribution of States, Union Territories and urban local bodies with regard to the implementation of the scheme — in Rajkot.
In the awards, Uttar Pradesh bagged the first position followed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu at second and third place, respectively.
Poll-bound Gujarat saw five special category awards — for performance related to Affordable Rental Housing Complexes and ‘Convergence with other Missions’ — coming its way.
Madhya Pradesh got three special category awards followed by Jammu and Kashmir, which was adjudged the ‘Best Performing UT’ alongside Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu.
PMAY-U scheme is aimed at confronting and tiding over the shortage of housing facilities in urban India for beneficiaries under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), Low-Income Groups (LIGs) and Middle Income Groups (MIGs) categories.
According to Mr. Puri, 1.23 crore houses were sanctioned under the scheme of which 64 lakh — over 52% — have already been completed and delivered while the rest were at various stages of completion.
PMAY-U, he added, had emerged as the largest housing scheme in the world since its launch seven years ago in June, 2015 with the number of houses sanctioned under it so far — 1.23 crore — “9 times the number that was achieved in the 10 years of the previous regime” between 2004 and 2014.
PMAY-U, Mr. Puri said, was a perfect example of “the spirit of co-operative and competitive federalism” with all States across the country participating in it “enthusiastically.”
Besides having the power to appraise and approve housing projects, all the States also had healthy competition with each other to ensure that their State came on top. The ultimate winner, he added, had been the people, and especially those who belonged to the vulnerable EWS and LIG sections of society.
Prior to the award ceremony on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that more than 3 crore pucca houses had been given to the poor in villages and cities across the country in the last 8 years.
As many as 10 lakh among these had been approved for the poor in the cities of Gujarat, of which 7 lakh has already been completed.
