Delay in PM’s flagship rural housing scheme to invite penalty

Source: The post is based on the article “Delay in PM’s flagship rural housing scheme to invite penalty” published in The Hindu on 16th September 2022.

What is the News?

The Union Ministry of Rural Development has come up with a set of penalties that the State governments will have to bear for any further delay in implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(Gramin).

What is Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(Gramin)?

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What has been the progress of the scheme?

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(Gramin) was launched in April 2016 with a target of constructing 2.95 crore houses. This number was deduced from the Socio-Economic Caste Survey, 2011.

The initial deadline for the scheme was March 2022, which owing to the COVID pandemic was extended by another two years till March 2024. 

As per the statistics available with the Union Ministry of Rural Development, by August 2022, 2.02 crore houses have been constructed.

There have been several delays by the states in reaching the targets under the scheme. Due to this, the government has now introduced a penalty that the State governments will have to bear for any further delay in the implementation of the scheme.

What is the penalty introduced by the government?

If the sanction of the house is delayed for more than one month from the date of issue of the target, the State government will be penalized ₹10 per house for the first month of delay and ₹20 per house for each subsequent month of delay. 

Similarly, if the first installment due to the beneficiary is delayed for more than seven days from the date of sanction, then the State governments will have to pay ₹10 per house per week of delay.

No penalty would be imposed if the central funds are not available to the State.