Chhattisgarh government launches own housing scheme for state’s homeless families

Earlier this year, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said his government would conduct a socio-economic survey in the absence of the decennial census in India after the 2011 Census. The survey of 59.79 lakh families was conducted in April and its update went on until May, according to which 10,76,545 families were found living in kutcha (weak) houses.

“At present, there are many families who are not eligible for housing on account of improvements in their standard of living, and there are some families who need housing but are not eligible as per the survey list of 2011,” the Chhattisgarh government said in a press note.

Based on the survey, Baghel had announced in July, “Mukhyamantri Gramin Awas NYAY Yojana will provide assistance for the construction of houses to eligible beneficiaries of the housing scheme in the state and will bear 100 per cent of the amount required for its implementation. The remaining families on the permanent waiting list of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin will benefit from the CM initiative”.

As many as 47,090 homeless families found in the Chhattisgarh Socio-Economic Census 2023 in the financial year 2023-24 will benefit in the first phase of the state government scheme. An assistance of Rs 1.30 lakh will be given to families in remote areas of the state and Rs 1.20 lakh to those living in plain areas for housing.

In November 2021, the Centre had withdrawn Chhattisgarh from the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Rural because the state government had not released its share in the scheme since 2019. Under PMAY-G, the Centre and states share expenditure in the ratio 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 said it withdrew the annual target of 7,81,999 homes in rural areas for 2021-22. The letter said the state will not be allowed to seek a target from PMAY-G in future.

The letter dated November 17, 2021, said the state had not released its share in the scheme since 2019. It said that despite repeated requests and directions, the state had a poor performance under the scheme.

Back then, Chhattisgarh officials said the state could not provide its share as they had to spend on pandemic-related expenditures and the state government wrote back to the Centre requesting more time to provide their share of the money for implementing the scheme.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Rural was implemented by the Central Government in 2016 on the basis of socio-economic and caste censuses. As many as 18,75,580 lakh families are included in the permanent waiting list under the scheme, out of which housing approval has been given to 11,76,146 families and 6,99,439 families are yet to benefit from the permanent waiting list.

Spokesperson for BJP, Kedar Gupta said,” “Under PMAY – rural they were supposed to get Rs 1.35 lakh and under PMAY- urban they were supposed to get Rs 2.45 lakh. Further, out of the 16 lakh beneficiaries only one lakh benefited and 15 lakh lost out,” said BJP spokesperson Kedar Gupta

Former collector and ex-IAS turned BJP leader, OP Choudhary said, “This year Rs 100 crore was set aside in the budget for Awas Yojna but to implement the so-called Mukhyamantri Nyay Yojna they will need few thousand crore rupees. So, this announcement ahead of the elections is nothing but a gimmick to loot votes.”