[ Litem Eshi Ori ]
PASIGHAT, 4 Aug: Several beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen (PMAY-G) in East Siang district are still awaiting payments of their second installments to complete their house construction just as the monsoon sets in, exacerbating their worries. The delay is because of non-release of funds, officials say.
Due to non-payment of second installment, construction of their houses remained incomplete.
A beneficiary at Ruksin who did not want to be named, received her first installment last year, but even after one year second installment has not been received. “If the second installment had been given the construction could have been completed before monsoon,” she said.
The family had initially made a temporary bamboo house when their house was pulled down for reconstruction.
“We are now trying to avail a loan and complete some work to move in before the rain gets more regular. We had expected that PMAY-G would be a big help, but the delay in payment has made the scheme more of a hassle,” she said.
The beneficiary has been waiting for two long years to receive the first installment of financial assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen (PMAY-G) – the Modi government’s flagship program, which aims at providing a pucca house to all houseless people and those living in kutcha and dilapidated houses.
To achieve the target of ‘Housing for All’ in rural areas, the ministry of rural development implemented PMAY-G on 1 April 2016 to provide assistance to construct pucca houses with basic amenities. The initial timeline for PMAY-G was 2022, which has now been extended to March 2024.
An official at Ruksin informed that “At present all payments under PMAY-G have been suspended by the government due to non availability of the fund.”
Under PMAY-G, hilly states especially, the northern states, contribution levels have a ratio of 90:10, of which the central government provides 90% of the funding.
Rs 1.50 lakhs is given to each beneficiary in three instalments- ?30000/ and ?70000/ are given prior to construction while ?30000 is given after completion. The state government tops up ?20000 as state share for each beneficiary.
