NEW DELHI: A revelation about the limited appeal of houses built with govt aid without the necessary infrastructure and amenities shows that nearly 47% of the 9.7 lakh houses constructed under two verticals of the flagship PM Awas Yojana in urban areas for the poor and slum dwellers remain unoccupied. The parliamentary panel on the housing and urban affairs ministry has stated that the failure to occupy these houses, for “whatsoever reason”, will defeat the very purpose of the mission.
The housing and urban affairs ministry in its submission to a parliamentary committee has said the beneficiaries are not taking houses due to lack of proper infrastructure.
The problem is more in the case of houses built under In-situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR) vertical for slum dwellers. Nearly 70% of the built houses are unoccupied, as per ministry’s submission.
In its first report on the Demand for Grants (2024-25) for the ministry tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the panel has recommended that the ministry’s responsibility is to “closely monitor the progress of housing projects, address bottlenecks in construction and allotment processes and ensure effective coordination between Central and state authorities”.
The ministry in its submission had informed the panel that out of total 9.7 lakh completed houses under Affordable Housing Partnership (AHP) vertical and ISSR houses, about 5.1 lakh are occupied. Quoting the ministry’s response the report said, “The broad reason for unoccupancy as informed by the states includes incomplete infrastructure, non-allotment of houses, unwillingness of allottees. As per PMAY-U scheme guidelines, the trunk infrastructure is to be provided by respective state/ UT govt from their own resources. The state govts concerned have not been able to provide the same so far, resulting in non-occupancy of houses.”
The Centre provided its fixed share of Rs 1 lakh as assistance under ISSR vertical, Rs 1.5 lakh for AHP.
The report mentioned that under AHP vertical little over 4.1 lakh out of around 9 lakh completed houses remained unoccupied whereas under ISSR vertical, the number is 47,510 houses against 67,806 completed houses.
