5-yr extension to PMAY(G); 20mn houses to be built

The Narendra Modi government has extended the housing scheme for rural poor or the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (Gramin), one of the most important welfare programmes to fight multi-dimensional poverty, for another five years to construct an additional 20 million houses, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday.

- Saubhadra Chatterji

Presenting the Union's interim budget for 2024-25 fiscal year, the minister cited increased demand for the decision. The government has already sanctioned 29.4 million houses for rural poor against a target of 29.5 million dwelling units by 2024. Of the sanctioned, 25.5 million have been constructed.

"Despite the challenges due to COVID, implementation of PM Awas Yojana (Grameen) continued and we are close to achieving the target of three crore houses. Two crore more houses will be taken up in the next five years to meet the requirement arising from increase in the number of families," Sitharaman announced in her interim budget on Thursday.

In the interim budget for the next financial year, the allocation for the PMAY-Grameen is ₹54,500 crore.