Minister for Housing V. Somanna has said that additionally 3,500 houses for the urban areas and 1,300 houses for rural areas of Dharwad district would be sanctioned under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
He was performing ‘bhoomi puja’ along with Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi for the construction of 235 houses under PMAY at Kundagol town in Dharwad district on Saturday. The Minister said that already 4,075 houses had been sanctioned to urban and rural areas of the district under PMAY.
Mr. Somanna said that the slums in Kundagol town would be developed in such a way as to become a model to the entire State.
5 lakh houses constructed
The Minister also said that while the Union Government had sanctioned 18 lakh houses to the State in the current year, the State Government had so far constructed 5 lakh houses.
He said that the financial assistance would be directly credited to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. Already steps had been taken to check leasing out houses sanctioned under government schemes, he said.
He pointed out that already the annual income limit of the beneficiaries had been increased to ₹1.2 lakh. This apart, a total of 6,600 residential plots had been purchased by the Housing Ministry and allocated to the poor.
“A government is not restricted to one political party but to all. Accordingly houses will be allocated,” he said.
1.15 crore houses
Mr. Joshi said that the Centre had embarked upon an ambitious project of providing shelter to all by 2024. In the current fiscal, the Union Government had sanctioned 1.15 crore houses, he said.
Mr. Joshi said that there were around 65 crore slum dwellers in the country and the migration to urban areas was increasing. According to an estimate, the number of urban dwellers was likely to reach 50% of the country’s population. So in order to check migration to urban areas, the government was focussing on construction of more houses in the rural areas, he said.
The Union Minister also said that there were around 36,000 slum dwellers in Dharwad district. While earlier Governments initiated steps to shift the slums, the present Government had taken steps to provide better amenities to the slum dwellers and by helping them construct houses. Already various development works worth ₹76 crore had been initiated in Kundagol taluk, he said.
Chairman of Karnataka Bal Vikas Academy Iranna Jadi, Commissioner of Karnataka Slum Development Board B. Venkatesh, and others were present.
