‘Pedalandariki Illu’ (Housing for all) scheme, a flagship programme of the YSRCP government, may hit a roadblock as the allocation for construction of each unit is pegged at ₹1.80 lakh, which includes the Central government’s share of ₹1.50 lakh. The State government has added ₹30,000 from the NREGA funds to each unit. The State government intends to construct 28.30 lakh houses in two phases -- 15.10 lakh houses in first phase and 13.20 lakh houses in second phase.
This was in comparison to the previous government’s allocations. The previous government had allocated ₹1.50 lakh as its share in the Affordable Housing Programme and ₹1 lakh in the beneficiary-led housing programme.
Administrative sanction
According to GO M.S No 8 issued on December 2, 2020, the State government has accorded administrative sanction to the project costing ₹24,776.84 crore under PMRY-YSR Urban-BLC 2019 under which 13.76 lakh houses will be constructed with a unit cost of ₹1.80 lakh. The State government also issued revised administrative sanction to construct 1.33 lakh houses with a unit cost of ₹1.80 lakh and a project cost of ₹2,407.45 crore under PMAY-YSR Urban-BLC (2018-19).
“The unit cost of ₹1.80 lakh is hardly sufficient to meet the rising construction costs. The prices of sand, cement and steel have gone up considerably during the last five years. In this scenario, the beneficiary may find it a herculean task to build a house,” said a senior official in the Department of Housing.
The State government, however, had spent considerable amount in buying land and Chief Minister Y.S Jagan Mohan Reddy promised that the new colonies would have all amenities of a township, including paved roads, schools, health care centres, and bus stations.
The four verticals of PMAY-Housing for All scheme includes, in situ slum development, under which, land is used as a resource with private participation, credit-linked subsidy, under which the government provides subsidy for economically weaker sections (EWS) and low income groups (LIG) for construction of new houses or incremental housing through a subsidy or loans up to ₹6 lakh. Affordable Housing Partnership scheme is done with public/private sector under which Central government provides an assistance of ₹1.50 lakh for each unit, while subsidy for beneficiary-led individual housing construction is a scheme under which the Centre provides ₹1.50 lakh as assistance.
