Ludhiana, September 1, 2023: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is implementing Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) since June 25, 2015, to provide pucca house with basic amenities to all eligible urban beneficiaries across the country. As on 31st July 2023, 118.90 lakh houses have been sanctioned by the Ministry based on the project proposals submitted by States/Union Territories (UTs), out of which 76.02 lakh have been completed/delivered to the beneficiaries. Punjab is ranked 18th in performance vis a vis completion of houses against other 36 States/UTs.

This has been stated by the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore in reply to a question asked by MP (Rajya Sabha) from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora in the recently concluded monsoon session of Rajya Sabha. Arora had asked about the statistics for the PMAY-U in the last five years. He had also asked about the total number of beneficiaries registered and houses built under PMAY-(U) in Punjab; and the amount approved, released and actual utilisation of funds by government to build houses under PMAY-(U) in Punjab. Besides, Arora had also asked whether government is planning to extend the interest subsidy scheme for buyers under PMAY-U or any other scheme to accommodate the buyers.

Giving this information here today, Arora said the Minister also provided the district-wise details of houses sanctioned, grounded for construction, and completed/delivered to the beneficiaries along with Central Assistance sanctioned, released, and utilized under PMAY-U in the State of Punjab. Arora said the data provided by the Minister gave an overview of housing construction and financial assistance allocation across all the 23 districts of Punjab. 

Arora said the data shows that a total 1,32,235 houses were sanctioned. Finally, only 75,704 houses were completed. As far as financial assistance is concerned, the total sanctioned amount for central assistance was Rs.2,342.88 crore whereas the total released amount of assistance was Rs.1,646.49 crore. However, the total utilised amount of assistance was Rs.1,501.52 crore. Thus, the overall output is unsatisfactory. Arora stressed upon the need that the MoHUA should further speed-up the work to get better output. 

Arora said the data provided by the Minister reveals that some districts, such as Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Patiala have a notably higher number of sanctioned and completed houses, along with larger amounts of financial assistance. Mohali is at the top of the list followed by Ludhiana and Jalandhar with utilised amounts of Rs.529 Crores, Rs.221 Crores and Rs.169 Crores, respectively. Bottom 3 are Nawanshahr, Pathankot and Malerkotla with a utilised amount of Rs.6 Crores, Rs.7.6 Crores and Rs.7.0 Crores, respectively.