Over 1.64 lakh pucca houses for poor to be built in Assam under PMAY(G) during 2016-17

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has formally launched Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) to provide an environmentally safe and secure pucca house to every rural household by 2022 in the State by ceremonially distributing sanction letters to beneficiaries in a programme held at Sarusajai Sports Complex.

The PMAY (G) proposes “Housing for All” in rural areas of the State with a target to complete 1,64,245 pucca houses in its first phase during 2016-17.

The unit cost for these houses has been significantly increased to Rs. 1.30 lakh and further through convergence of Swacch Bharat Mission and MGNREGA, a minimum support of nearly Rs. 1.60 lakh to a household is available under the scheme.

Similarly, minimum size of a house has been enlarged from 20 sq.m under IAY to 25 sq.m including a dedicated area for hygiene cooking.

Inaugurating the PMAY(G) for the state, Sonowal termed the initiative as a major step forward in bringing qualitative change in the lifestyle of the downtrodden people of Assam.

“India will emerge as a strong nation if the poor are strengthened,” Sonowal said.

Stating that the government sets a target to build around 10 lac pucca houses in the state by the year 2022, Sonowal spoke in clear terms that all out effort has been made to stop all anomalies in selection of beneficiaries and construction of houses in the State.

Sonowal further added that strong monitoring mechanism for implementation of the scheme has been developed in the State.

“The selection of beneficiaries has been made through a completely transparent process using the Socio Economic Census 2011 data and validating it through the Gram Sabha. There is also a provision of Bank loan upto Rs. 70,000 if the beneficiary desires to further expand the house,” Sonowal said.

The Assam CM further stressed on people’s participation and cooperation in effective implementation of Govt. projects and urged them to keep strict vigilance over the functioning of the Government.

Sonowal also said that PMAY will further cover people of urban areas of the State also in phase manner.

Union Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar while attending the inaugural programme as Guest of Honour assured the State Government to ensure flow of adequate fund for all rural development schemes in the State.

Stating that Government of India is committed to uplift the poor through all possible means, the Union Minister stated that under PMAY(G),  2.95 crore houses will be built in India by the year 2022.

The Union Minister further stressed on balanced development in every sphere of life in the nation and said that the immediate objective of the Government of India is to cover 1 crore households in rural areas for the homeless or those living in kutcha or dilapidated houses in three years from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

The Union Minister further stated that the Government proposes to converge SBM, Ujjwala Scheme, Deendayal Upadhyay Rural Electrification Scheme and MGNREGA with the implementation of PMAY(G).

“For building a pucca house in Assam, each beneficiary will get 1.3 lac as principal amount alongwith Rs. 12,000 for toilet construction under SBM and Rs. 18,000 under MGNREGA,” Tomar said. 

State P&RD Minister Naba Kumar Doley in his speech informed that Rs. 2100 cr. has been sanctioned by the central Government for implementation of PMAY (G) in the State.

He also stated that the State Government is making best efforts to make the beneficiary list all inclusive so that no homeless is left out.

“Government is seriously considering the issue of certain eligible people not being included in the list. Already the Chief Minister has taken up the matter with the Union Government and all left out will be accommodated in the beneficiary list,” the State P&RD Minister said.

Coinciding the inaugural programme, a Hitadhikari Pustika containing all details of the scheme was released by the Chief Minister.

PMAY(G) envisages a large scale use of local materials along with a complete home with cooking space, electricity provision, LPG, toilet and bathing area, drinking water etc through convergence.

To ensure complete transparency and accountability, the entire payments are through Direct Benefit Transfer mode.

Loksabha MPs Bijoya Chakraborty and Ramen Deka; MLAs Siddhartha Bhattarjya, Ramendra Narayan Kalita, Atul Bora, Pronob Kalita, Bhabesh Kalita, Bhaskar Sarma, Satyabrata Kalita, Suman Haripriya, Nandita Das, Chief Secretary to the Government of Assam VK Pipersenia, Addl. Chief Secretary MGVK Bhanu and other senior Government officials and host of PMAY(G) beneficiairies were present in the programme.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)