Over 18 lakh houses sanctioned under PMAY-G scheme in Assam: Minister

State Panchayat and Rural Development (P&RD) Minister Ranjit Kumar Das said on Friday that more than 18 lakh houses have been sanctioned in Assam under the pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) so far and more than 11 lakh houses have been completed.

Addressing a press conference here, Das said more than 19 lakh beneficiaries are under PMAY-G in the state.

“Since the inception of the scheme and aligned with the objective of the scheme i.e. ‘Housing for All’, Assam has sanctioned 18,30,400 PMAY-G houses.

Out of which, 11,63,417 houses have been completed and 7,59,163 houses have been completed in the last two years.

The Panchayat and Rural Development Minister said that the target has been set to complete the rest by August 15 this year.

Das said the state has spent Rs 12,504.79 crore for the implementation of PMAY-G till date from the financial year 2022-23.

He also said that the state government has so far provided land to 40,096 landless PMAY-G beneficiaries.

“To accommodate the landless PMAY-G beneficiaries, the government has taken the initiative to provide land for building a cluster of PMAY-G houses. At the same time efforts are being made to raise funds through various schemes and CSR to provide other facilities in the cluster,” said Das.

He said that in 19 groups covering 838 beneficiaries in 10 districts, 7 sets have been completed so far and work is in progress in 19 sets.

Also, we have developed a standard operating procedure for PMAY-G housing in tea estate areas. So far, 81,638 beneficiaries have been covered under it,” the minister added.

He also said that the state government is planning to hold a mass ‘Graha Pravesh’ ceremony for more than 2.5 lakh completed houses.

More than 3,400 masons have been trained in the state to locally meet the demand of skilled manpower for construction of PMAY-G houses, he said.

“A regional conference of nine eastern region states will be held in Assam on June 2-3 to monitor the process of implementation of the scheme and share best practices among states,” Das added.