Punjab CM Amarinder Singh urges PM to relax PMAY-G norms to bring more rural poor in scheme ambit

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to bring more rural poor into the ambit of the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) by relaxing norms of the scheme. In a letter to the prime minister, Singh said the definition of 'kutcha house' was very restrictive, “causing a large number of poor and deserving people of Punjab to be deprived of benefits under PMAY-G”.

“Changing norms would ensure that maximum number of rural poor population get covered under this pro-poor initiative, thereby realizing ground realities prevailing in Punjab,” he wrote, as per an official statement here Friday. Referring to his meeting with Modi on September 1, 2018, where the latter had raised the issue of low level of performance of Punjab under PMAY-G, Singh said Punjab then ranked 25th among all states but, within just nine months, had improved its ranking to 3rd.

His government, said the chief minister, shall continue to work to ensure that every rural poor household has a 'pucca' house. However, he said, a large population of the poor was “excluded” from PMAY-G benefits due to restrictive nature of the norms.

In order to obviate this problem, the chief minister suggested a more inclusive definition of 'kutcha house' envisaging “predominant material of wall of dwelling room – grass/thatch/bamboo or plastic/polythene or mud/unburnt/ burnt bricks or wood or stone not packed with mortar…,” instead of its existing definition, which excluded “burnt bricks and wooden planks”.

The chief minister requested that in the proposed definition the two components of burnt bricks and wooden planks be included to extend benefit of the scheme to the deserving rural poor populace, thus appreciating the ground reality prevailing in Punjab. Modi had launched the 'Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin' on November 20, 2016. The rural housing programme is designed to meet the needs and aspirations of households.

-PTI