States missing Rural Housing Targets
By Tapan Moharana: While the Government of India is working on the Prime Minister’s ambitious project “Housing for all by 2022”,a parliamentary panel has criticized both the central government and the state governments for failing to meet the annual targets for building houses for rural beneficiaries.
The Parliamentary Committee on rural Development while reviewing the state of the rural housing sector has found huge gap between houses targeted vis-à-vis houses constructed in the rural areas under the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Awas Yojna(PMGAY) or the erstwhile Indira Awas Yojna(IAY).
The committee in its report has revealed that during the last 3 years there has been huge gap between houses targeted vis -a-vis houses constructed. For instance, during 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015 -16 as against houses targeted of 24.80 lakh, 25.14 lakh and 20.79 lakh, the houses constructed were as low as 15.92 lakh, 16.52 lakh and 18.01 lakh respectively. The committee has attributed the slow progress to reasons like reduction in outlays to the extent of Rs. 2,200 crore and Rs. 5,000 crore and imposition of Model Code of conduct during elections.
The committee has also expressed its concerns over large numbers of incomplete houses in the rural areas. During 2013-14 and 2014-15 there was a big gap between the houses sanctioned, houses completed and houses remain incomplete. For instance during 2013-14 and 2014 -15 as against the total houses sanctioned of 47. 53 lakh, the houses completed was as low as 29.28 lakh and 18. 24lakh houses are awaiting completion.
The committee are also constrained to note that major States with large number of incomplete houses are Bihar (7.48 lakh) , Assam (2.02 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (1.07 lakh), Jharkhand (0.95 lakh), Maharasthra (0.89 lakh), West Bengal (0.94 lakh) and Odisha (0.59 lakh) in other States the figure 60 is relatively low.
The panel has asked the government to take necessary steps to expedite the process and increase allocations to achieve the target.