· LS Standing Committee plea
The parliamentary standing committee on housing and urban affairs, in its report, maintained that many individuals are not able to derive benefit under the scheme because of the stringent eligibility conditions under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (PMAY). It advised the Ministry of Urban Development to review the eligibility conditions. It urged the Union Government to extend the deadline for the scheme which would come to a close on Dec 31, 2024. The standing committee submitted its report to Lok Sabha recently.
When the scheme was launched in 2015, it was estimated that the shortage of homes in the country during 2012-17 was 1.88 crore. The Urban Housing Ministry estimated that the number of families living in slums would increase to 18 millions. It was proposed to include 2 million non-slum urban families under the scheme. But the demand for new houses as per the estimates of state and central governments was 1.23 crore, the report said. By March 31, 2022, the Centre sanctioned over 1.22 crore houses. To complete the houses, the Centre fixed the deadline for executing them as Dec 31, 2024. Out of the 1.05 crore houses that are grounded under the project, construction of 64.33 lakh houses has been completed.
