2 cr more houses for poor under rural schemes in next 5 years

Tribune News Service

Nereaj Mohan

NEW DELHI, FebruARY 1

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made an attempt to address rural distress by proposing a substantial increase in allocations for centrally sponsored schemes and plans to construct an additional 20 million houses in rural areas over the next five years.

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) is on the verge of achieving its target of three crore houses, with an additional two crore houses set to be taken up in the next five years. Allocations under the PM-Awas Yojana have seen an increase to Rs 50,650 crore against Rs 50,486 crore of the previous year. The proposed budget estimates for rural development stand at Rs 1.77 lakh crore, showing an increase from the Rs 1.57 lakh crore of the previous fiscal. Construction of the additional two crore houses, each receiving an average unit assistance of Rs 2.05 lakh, is tentatively expected to require a financial provision of approximately Rs 4.18 crore.

The Finance Minister emphasised that over 70 percent of houses under the PM Awas Yojana in rural areas will be allocated to women as sole or joint owners, aiming to enhance their dignity.

While the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA) sees an increase in allocation to Rs 86,000 crore from the previous Rs 60,000 crore, other allocations have been adjusted. The central road and infrastructure fund face a reduction to Rs 12,000 crore from Rs 15,000 crore, whereas the PM Gramin Sadak Yojana’s allocation has increased to Rs 16,600 crore from Rs 14,800 crore.

To address rural electrification, the budget proposes enabling one crore households to receive up to 300 units of free electricity every month through rooftop solarization.

In her address, the Finance Minister claimed that government initiatives have lifted 25 crore people out of poverty in the last ten years. She highlighted free food provisions for 80 crore people and significant Direct Benefit Transfer of Rs 34 lakh crore through PM Jan Dhan Yojana, resulting in savings of Rs 2.7 lakh crore.

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