Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include a component of the cost incurred towards creation of basic infrastructure in housing colonies under Navaratnalu-Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY), and said the meagre grant ₹1.80 lakh provided for individual houses would not be sufficient to cover it. The State Government had allotted ₹30,000 per unit. The government of Andhra Pradesh has plans to construct 30 lakh houses within the next year.
In a letter addressed to Mr. Modi, Mr. Reddy said the program would address housing shortage among the underprivileged household categories, including slum dwellers, by ensuring pucca houses to all eligible households by 2022, when the country completes 75 years of independence. “This nation-wide program has further progressed India’s journey of achieving UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe and resilient.”
“In the last seven years, 308.2 lakhs houses were sanctioned with a release of Central assistance amounting to ₹2.99 lakh crores. However, three key components majorly contribute to the success of this programme...including sanctioning of house sites to eligible beneficiaries, assisting beneficiaries in construction of pucca houses on their allotted house sites and developing basic infrastructure such as roads, electrification, water supply, drainage facilities in such colonies/ layouts,” the letter said.
“The government of A.P. has taken the vision forward and has acquired 68,381 acres of land and allotted sites at the rate of one cent in urban areas and 1.5 cent in rural and urban development authority areas, to 30.76 lakhs beneficiaries spread across 17,005 greenfield colonies at an estimated cost of ₹23,535 crores.”
“However, the objectives of the PMAY programme will not be fulfilled without development of basic infrastructure in these greenfield colonies. In Andhra Pradesh, construction of such basic infrastructural amenities requires an estimated amount of ₹34,109 crores. The State government has already spent ₹23,535 crores in providing house sites to all eligible beneficiaries under PMAY programme. Hence, I request you to include the project component of providing basic infrastructure in the PMAY programme,’’ Mr. Reddy said.
