States slow in Centre's housing scheme

Though "Housing for All by 2022" is among the promises Prime Minister Narendra Modi made in the past four years, several states have been slow in implementing the Union government's flagship scheme in rural areas.

The Union Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) is prodding the states to speed up the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) or PMAY (G), which the Modi government re-launched in 2016 after restructuring the Indira Awas Yojana.

The MoRD on May 21 last year sent out the minutes of meetings of an "empowered committee" within the ministry to appraise the performance of the governments of all the states in building houses in rural areas as well as to approve the action plan for implementation of the PMAY (G) in 2018-19 financial year.

The representatives of the respective state governments also participated in the meetings, which were held in March and April this year.

Bihar had a cumulative target of building 11.76 lakh houses, out of which 4 lakh were to be constructed by March.

But the state completed construction of only 11,561 houses by April 2. Besides, as on March 12, Chhattisgarh completed construction of 286,616 houses under the PMAY (G) against a cumulative target of 6.88 lakh houses, out of which 322827 houses were to be built by March.

Madhya Pradesh built 6.10 lakh houses against a cumulative target of constructing 8.00 lakh houses by March.

Rajasthan completed construction of 1,96,568 houses by February against a cumulative target of building 4,73,887, out of which 3,00,000 were to be built by March.

Gujarat had a cumulative target of building 2.05 lakh houses, out of which 2 lakh were to be constructed by March. The state, however, could build 36,276 houses by March 26.

Andra Pradesh had a cumulative target of constructing 1,20,943 houses by March, but it could build only 23219 houses by March 15.

Kerala had a cumulative target of completing the construction of 42,431 houses, out of which 30,000 were to be built by March.

The state government, however, could build only 6,614 houses by March 1. Karnataka built 27,674 houses by March 21, although it had a cumulative target of building 145349 houses by the end of the previous financial year.