Wooing the middle class ahead of the upcoming general elections, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced that the government will launch a housing scheme for those who are living in rented accommodations or slums to buy or build their own houses.

“Our Government will launch a scheme to help deserving sections of the middle class ‘living in rented houses, or slums, or chawls and unauthorized colonies’ to buy or build their own houses,” the Finance Minister said in her interim Budget speech.

Highlighting the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G), the Finance Minister said the government is close to achieving the target of three crore houses in rural areas despite the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the government will support the construction of 2 crore more houses for the rural poor in the next five years under the continuing PMAY-G.

“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,” the Finance Minister said.

" ₹2 crore more housing units in the next five years under the PM Awas Yojana. New housing scheme for the middle class is expected for people living in rented/chawls/unauthorised areas on rent to build/buy their own house. These initiatives should significantly help in plugging the overall housing shortage faced by the country," Hindustan Times quoted Ravi Shankar Singh, Managing Director, Residential Transaction Services at Colliers India, as saying.

It is important to note that to achieve the target of 'Housing for All' in rural areas, the Ministry of Rural Development is implementing PMAY-G with effect from 1st April 2016 to assist eligible rural households. The PMAGY-G overall target is to construct 2.95 crore pucca houses with basic amenities by March 2024.

The central assistance under PMAY-G is released directly to the State/UT considering the State/UT as a unit. The respective State Government/UT Administration further releases these funds to beneficiaries in various Districts/Blocks/ Gram Panchayats.

"The amount of Central Share of funds released to the States/UTs for construction of houses under PMAY-G during the last five years, which is from the financial year 2018-19 to 2022-23 was around ₹1,60,853.38 crore," an official release stated in December.

Source: livemint.com