More than 8.5 lakh families await houses under PMAY-Gramin in Rajasthan
JAIPUR: A staggering 8.67 lakh families in Rajasthan are still waiting for houses, even as the government of India (GOI) has not provided the state with fresh targets under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen (PMAY-G) for the last two years, according to a senior official in the rural development department.
The official revealed that Rajasthan, along with several other states, has not received any fresh targets from the Centre for the years 2022-23 and 2023-24. As the state continues to face a significant housing shortage, authorities have sent multiple letters to the GOI, urging them to allocate fresh targets as a priority.
As per data presented by Minister of Rural Development, Giriraj Singh, in the Lok Sabha on July 25, out of the 17.19 lakh houses sanctioned for Rajasthan under PMAY-G, the construction of 16.68 lakh houses has been completed. However, despite this substantial progress, there remains a substantial backlog of families awaiting homes.
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen (PMAY-G) aims to construct 2.95 crore houses across rural India to achieve the vision of “Housing for All” by March 2024. The beneficiaries under this scheme are identified based on specific housing deprivation parameters outlined in the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) of 2011.
To ensure a fair and transparent selection process, the identification of beneficiaries involves verification by gram sabhas, followed by the completion of an appellate process. A Permanent Wait List (PWL) is then prepared at the gram panchayat level. As of July 19, 2023, a total of 2.04 crore households have been identified and included in the PWL.
To address the shortfall of 91 lakh houses (2.95 crore – 2.04 crore), data from the Awaas+ Survey conducted from January 2018 to March 7, 2019, is being utilized. During this survey, states and Union Territories uploaded details of additional households that claimed to have been left out from the SECC 2011-based PWL but are eligible for inclusion.
Minister Giriraj Singh affirmed that equivalent targets have already been allocated to the states and Union Territories to fill this gap and accelerate the progress towards achieving the “Housing for All” mission in rural areas.
