As many as 1,454 beneficiaries are set to ink agreements with the city Corporation for construction of houses as part of the seventh Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the Pradhan Mantri Awaz Yojana (PMAY) housing project.
Excluding this number, more than 10,000 beneficiaries have already been approved by the local body as part of the project since 2015. Chosen beneficiaries can sign agreements with the Corporation from Monday.
“Due to the COVID-19 situation, the work on the seventh DPR was getting delayed. Field activities also were not happening much. We cannot delay this further as there are timelines stipulated for each stage of the project. Usually, we organise beneficiary meets before signing agreement, in which they are given classes on cost-effective construction. Now, considering the current situation, they will be provided leaflets with tips when they sign the agreement,” said a PMAY official.
Out of the around 10,000 beneficiaries till now, more than 3,500 completed their houses and got TC numbers. A good number of the beneficiaries are in the third stage, with houses completed and waiting for the paperwork to be finished. Around 1,500 others have their houses nearing completion.
Photos checked
Funds are disbursed only after checking the photographs of the progress of work, uploaded by the beneficiaries. Geo-tagging surveyors have been appointed across all wards. The funds are provided in four instalments, with disbursal of 10%, 40%, 40% and 10% for each stage of construction, over one year, during which the construction has to be completed.
In each DPR, 10 people from each of the 100 wards are included. In addition, those who have bought land under the LIFE (livelihood, inclusion, financial empowerment) housing project of the State government are also included. Houses under the PMAY are for those who already own land, while the LIFE project has a separate phase for landless beneficiaries too.
As part of the original PMAY project envisaged by the Union government, each beneficiary would get ₹1.5 lakh from the Centre, the State and the local body together would contribute ₹1 lakh, and the beneficiary share was ₹50,000.
Clubbed with LIFE
In Kerala, the project has now been clubbed with the LIFE project, as per which they will be given ₹2 lakh as the Corporation’s share and ₹50,000 as the State government’s share, taking the total sum provided to the beneficiary to ₹4 lakh. The beneficiary share was thus done away with. The Corporation had last year returned the share of 1,500 PMAY beneficiaries who had already paid it before the project was clubbed with LIFE.
