Cabinet approves assistance for 3 crore more houses under PM Awas Yojana

PM Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-chaired Cabinet on June 10 announced the decision to provide assistance to 3 crore additional rural and urban households for the construction of houses, to meet the requirements arising out of the increase in the number of eligible families.

From 2015-16, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana or PMAY has been providing assistance to eligible rural and urban households for construction of houses with basic amenities.

Under PMAY, a total of 4.21 crore houses have been completed for the eligible poor families under the housing schemes in the last 10 years, the government said in a release.

The houses constructed under PMAY comes with amenities such as toilets, LPG connection, electricity, functional taps through convergence with other schemes of central and state governments.

The interim Union Budget for 2024-25 on February 1 allocated Rs 80,671 crore for the flagship PMAY scheme. It also outlined the aim to set up two crore affordable houses in the next five years.

In the Budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that despite the challenges due to Covid-19, implementation of PMAY-G (Gramin) continued and the government was close to achieving the target of 3 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,” she added.