Staff Reporter
Guwahati: Under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) 2.0, Assam has received 1,71,593 new pucca houses that will be sanctioned by the Prime Minister on September 15, 2024. Assam Panchayat and Rural Development (P&RD) Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass made this announcement on Wednesday.
Addressing the media at the office of the Commissioner of P&RD, the minister said that Assam had received a total of 20,51,842 pucca houses till March 31, 2024. Out of these, 19,17,441 houses have been completed, the minister said. He added that he had asked the department to complete around 80,000 remaining houses by September 30 this year.
He also mentioned that in the last three years, i.e., from May 10, 2021, to September 10, 2024, the work on a total of 15,13,133 pucca houses had been completed, which made up for 93% of the total sanctioned houses. The minister mentioned that this number comes among the best-performing states of the country.
He also mentioned that the new beneficiaries will be checked before allocating the houses to ensure that no undeserving person receives these houses, or no beneficiary receives two houses under the scheme, adding that officials of the department have been asked to verify the same in the coming 2-3 days. He also asked the officials to coordinate with the local MLAs in this regard.
Dass said that the tribal-dominated areas of the state will receive priority in the allocation of houses. As many as 20,276 houses have been sanctioned for Darrang, 19,286 for Karbi Anglong, 10,850 for West Karbi Anglong, 9,845 for Lakhimpur, 6230 for Dima Hasao, 5134 for Kokrajhar, 4659 for Majuli, 4173 for Udalguri, etc.
The minister added that the PM will launch the PMAY-G 2.0 at an event in Jamshedpur on September 15, 2024. During the same event, he will release the first installment for 10,00,000 beneficiaries as well as the griha pravesh for 26,00,000 new pucca houses for beneficiaries. Out of these, a total of 1,71,593 beneficiaries from Assam will get their houses sanctioned along with the griha pravesh for 1,03,575 beneficiaries. He said that the PM will also launch the New Awas Plus app to conduct surveys for new homes. He mentioned that the previous allocation was done based on a survey carried out in 2011 and had many faults. Although another survey was scheduled for 2018, the same could not be conducted properly as officials were engaged in the Lok Sabha elections and a Geographic Information System (GIS) survey could not be conducted.
He also mentioned that the survey of beneficiaries will be conducted again, adding that those owning two or three-wheelers will also be eligible to receive new houses, given that they do not have pucca houses. It is to be noted that the Aadhaar Bridge Payment System (ABPS) will now be mandatory for payments, and beneficiaries must link their Aadhaar with their bank accounts and enable the ABPS option to receive the payment. He added that ABPS camps are being organised in every district, with bank officials and beneficiaries, as well as job cardholders, who can contact their GP offices for more information.
Also read: Assam Completes Construction Of Over 19 Lakh Houses Under PMAY-G (sentinelassam.com)
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