Chhattisgarh administration has initiated its own housing programme for the state’s homeless families.
The Chhattisgarh government announced on Monday that in the first phase of the Mukhyamantri Gramin Awas NYAY Yojana, 47,000 or so poor persons in the state’s rural areas will receive houses. The announcement comes just a few months before the Assembly elections.
This comes after the Chhattisgarh administration and the central government had planned to implement the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana together in 2021. The Centre stated that it was not possible because the Chhattisgarh government did not contribute its share of funds. The state government stated that it could not implement the programme due to a dearth of funds caused by the pandemic.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel announced earlier this year that his government would conduct a socio-economic survey in the absence of a decennial census in India following the 2011 Census. According to the survey of 59.79 lakh families conducted in April and updated through May, 10,76,545 families were found to reside in kutcha (weak) dwellings.
The Chhattisgarh government stated in a press release, “Many families are currently ineligible for housing due to improvements in their standard of living, and there are some families who need housing but are not eligible according to the 2011 survey list.”
Based on the survey, Baghel had announced in July that “Mukhyamantri Gramin Awas NYAY Yojana will provide assistance for the construction of houses to eligible beneficiaries of the state’s housing scheme and will bear the entire cost of its implementation.” The CM initiative will aid the remaining families on the permanent waiting list for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin.
As many as 47,090 homeless families detected in the Chhattisgarh Socio-Economic Census 2023 in the financial year 2023-24 will benefit in the first phase of the state government scheme. Housing assistance of Rs 1.30 lakh will be provided to families residing in remote regions of the state, while those residing in plain areas will receive Rs 1.20 lakh.
The Centre withdrew Chhattisgarh from the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Rural in November 2021 because the state government had not released its allocation since 2019. Under PMAY-G, the federal government and the provinces share expenses in the proportion of 60:10.
In a letter to the additional chief secretary of the Rural Development Department of the Chhattisgarh government, the Union Ministry of Rural Development stated that the annual target of 781,999 rural homes for 2021-22 had been withdrawn. In the future, the state will not be permitted to request a target from PMAY-G, according to the letter.
The 17 November 2021 letter stated that the state had not distributed its portion of the scheme since 2019. According to the report, despite repeated petitions and directives, the state performed poorly under the scheme.
At the time, Chhattisgarh officials stated that the state was unable to provide its share due to pandemic-related expenses, and the state government wrote back to the Centre requesting more time to provide its share of the funds for the scheme’s implementation.
The Central Government implemented Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Rural in 2016 based on socioeconomic and caste censuses. The scheme includes a permanent waiting list of 18,75,580 lakh families, of which 11,76,146 families have been granted housing sanction, and 6,99,439 families have yet to benefit from the permanent waiting list.
