Loan up to Rs 70,000 for homeless, those staying in mud houses

As per the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojanscheme, the Centre will directly transfer the grant in bank accounts of beneficiaries

The homeless and those staying in mud houses can get a loan up to Rs 70,000 from banks and financial institutions at lower rate of interest for building pucca houses, government sources said.

This would be over and above the grant of Rs 1.30 lakh per person to be provided by the Centre under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojan (PMAY) which may be launched in a month's time, to provide homes to one crore beneficiaries, who either live in mud houses or are homeless.

The Rural Development Ministry, which is the nodal ministry for this scheme, recently held deliberations with number of banks, financial institutions and others to provide loans if required by the beneficiaries for construction of their homes, sources said.

As per the PMAY scheme, the Centre will directly transfer the grant in bank accounts of the beneficiaries. Rs 1.30 lakh per person will be transfered for those staying in plain areas and Rs 1.50 lakh for those who are in hilly terrain. The plan is to build one crore houses over a period of three years.

Selection and validation of beneficiaries of the scheme has been completed. It will be on DBT (direct benefit transfer) mode, that means the funds will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries in installments over three years period, a source said.

The total outlay of the scheme, including central and state's share, is more than Rs 1.30 lakh crore and the transfer of funds into the bank accounts of beneficiaries will start from next month and so do the construction, the source said.

"To check diversion of funds and to ensure transparency, there will be geotagging of all houses which will be built under this scheme," he said, adding the government is ensuring and taking all necessary steps that the funds are not misused or diverted to the people who are not in the list.