As Andhra Pradesh alters PMAY name, Centre puts ₹4,000­cr. funds on hold

As Andhra Pradesh alters PMAY name, Centre puts ₹4,000­cr. funds on hold

Subject : Schemes

Section : Housing

Context:

The Andhra Pradesh government’s decision to add the ruling YSR Congress Party’s imprint to the Union government’s flagship rural housing scheme  Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana­ Gramin (PMAY­G)  and rebrand it to Pradhan  Mantri Awas Yojana­ YSR are proving costly for the State.

About the PMAY-G:

• Although Indira Awas Yojana (started in 1996) addressed the housing needs in the rural areas, certain gaps were identified (lack of transparency in selection of beneficiaries, low quality houses, weak monitoring, etc) by CAG in 2014.
• To address these gaps in the rural housing program and in view of the Government’s commitment to providing “Housing for All’’ by 2022, the IAY has been restructured into PMAY-G w.e.f. 1st April 2016.
• PMAY-G aims at providing a pucca house, with basic amenities, to all houseless householders and those households living in kutcha and dilapidated houses, by 2022.
• The immediate objective is to cover 1.00 crore households living in kutcha houses/ dilapidated houses in three years from 2016-17 to 2018- 19.
• According to data available, of the Centre’s allocation of 2.93 crore houses till July 17 2023, 2.90 crore have been sanctioned, of which 2.31 crore have been completed.

Salient Features of the PMAY-G:

• The minimum size of the house has been increased to 25 sq.mt (from 20 sq.mt) with a hygienic cooking space.
• The unit assistance has been increased from Rs 70,000 to Rs 1.20 lakh in plain (to be shared in the ratio 60:40 between Central and State Government) and from Rs 75,000 to Rs 1.30 lakh for North Eastern and the Himalayan States (90:10).
• The assistance for construction of toilets shall be leveraged through convergence with SBM-G, MGNREGS or any other dedicated source of funding.
• For convergence for piped drinking water, electricity connection, LPG gas connection, etc., different government programmes are also to be attempted.

What makes PMAY-G unique?

• PMAY-G instead of selecting the beneficiary from among the BPL households, selects them using housing deprivation parameters in the SECC 2011 which is to be verified by the Gram Sabhas.
• Towards better quality of construction, setting up of a Nation Technical Support Agency (NTSA) at the national level is envisaged.
• Also, a pan-India training and certification programme of Masons has been launched in the States/UTs.
• In PMAY-G, programme implementation and monitoring are to be carried out through an end-to-end e-Governance model – using AwaasSoft and Awaas App.
• Also, the programme implementation is to be monitored through community participation (Social Audit), Member of Parliament (DISHA Committee), etc.

Government schemes classification:

• Central Sector Schemes and Centrally Sponsored Scheme
•  Central sector schemes are 100% funded by the Union government and implemented by the Central Government machinery.
•  Central sector schemes are mainly formulated on subjects from the Union List. They account for 11% of the Central Government’s expenditure.
•  In Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) a certain percentage of the funding is borne by the States and the implementation is by the State Governments.
• Centrally Sponsored Schemes are formulated in subjects from the State List to encourage States to prioritize in areas that require more attention. They account for 10% of Central governments expenditure.
• Usually Centrally Sponsored Schemes are revisited at the end of each five year plan period.
• However, after the discontinuation of Five Year Plan, it has been decided that sunset date will be coterminous with Finance Commission Cycles.