(FE)
The Narendra Modi government’s ambitious project to provide pucca houses to all by 2022 may have to be scaled down, as the progress so far has been rather tepid. After a delayed start in November last year, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)-Gramin, the main component of the project, saw construction of just 885 houses in rural areas in FY17, a far cry from the initial target of building 44 lakh houses. The ministry of rural development has now extended the deadline for constructing the 44 lakh houses to the end of 2017, but even this plan looks very ambitious.
As per the original three-year plan, another 33 lakh houses were to be built in 2017-18, but the government is not in a position to adhere to the target. The scheme for urban housing (PMAY-U) has also seen slow progress and the government blames the issue of land acquisition for this. To meet the objective of housing for all by 2022, the 75th year after Independence, the government had launched PMAY-U in mid-2015 to help build affordable houses in cities. However, only about 41,000 houses have been built till end-March 2017, out of the approved 16.3 lakh houses under the scheme by the Centre.
