Over 51 lakh houses sanctioned in last three years under PMAY (U) : Puri

The Centre has sanctioned 10,371 projects for construction of around 51.1 lakh houses in the country under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) in the last three years, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said today.

Puri said out of 51,10,382 houses sanctioned, 7,76,081 have been completed so far under the PMAY (U). He was replying to a written question in the Rajya Sabha.

The minister informed the Upper House that 1,424.59 crore has been been released under Credit-Linked Subsidy Scheme of the PMAY (U) in the current year while 2,481.56 crore released under CLSS in the last financial year.

The Centre had launched the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana on June 25, 2015, with an aim to provide assistance to states and Union Territories addressing the housing requirement of the urban poor including slum dwellers under its vision of "Housing for All by 2022".

According to the ministry, the Centre has approved an assistance of Rs 78,008.36 crore under the PMAY (U) during the last three years and out of this amount, Rs 27,653.18 crore has been sanctioned and released.

Rs 9,565.06 crore has been utilised under the mission so far in the last three years since the launch of the PMAY (U).

Puri also informed the Rajya Sabha that under the Swachh Bharat Mission, another flagship project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a target of 66,42,222 individual household toilets was set and out of this, 50,04,098 toilets completed across the country.

According to the ministry, out of a target of 1,25,398 individual household toilets set for Delhi, 458 have been constructed so far in the national capital.

Construction of toilets in cities under Swachh Bharat Mission will be completed by October 2, 2019.

As per a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) tabled in the Delhi Assembly in April this year, not a single toilet was constructed by then in the national capital since the inception of the Swachh Bharat Mission two-and-half years ago, with funds to the tune of Rs 40.31 crore for this purpose lying "idle".