FY19 Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen target unlikely to be met

The government is likely to miss its target of 10 million houses for the rural poor by the end of FY19 under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana–Grameen (PMAY-G). It had sanctioned 9.6 million houses and completed some 7.6 million. “Some information on completed houses has not yet been uploaded. We expect 8.6-8.7 million to be completed by April 20, with the remaining sanctioned houses to be likely to be completed by the end of June,” said a government official. The government hopes to close in by completing the remaining 1 million sanctioned houses by June, which will leave about 400,000 unsanctioned houses incomplete that it aims to complete by August. These have not yet been sanctioned because of difficulties in procuring land for construction or due to beneficiaries not being identified, said another official.

“Land is not readily available in some states. Fodder or green areas cannot be allotted for housing, so the government has to procure land,” said the official. In other cases, beneficiaries’ dwelling areas cannot be used for housing and they have refused to move.

Some states, including Punjab, Haryana, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, do not have enough approved beneficiaries to meet their rural housing targets, according to government officials, and are now awaiting approval of beneficiaries under the AwaasSoft identification and e-governance system. “We are trying to identify beneficiaries on priority for states like Punjab and Haryana, which have exhausted beneficiaries on the permanent wait list,” said a senior official.


PMAY-G, which provides Rs 1.2-1.3 lakh for a house, has been approved for a further 19.5 million houses by 2022, with 6 million of these to be completed in FY20.