Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) is a credit-linked subsidy scheme by the Government of India to facilitate access to affordable housing for the low and moderate-income residents of the country. It envisaged a target of building 2 crore (20 million) affordable houses by 31 March 2022. It has two components: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) (PMAY-U) for the urban poor and Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin) (PMAY-G and also PMAY-R) for the rural poor, the former administered by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the latter by Ministry of Rural Development. This scheme converges with other schemes to ensure houses have a toilet, Saubhagya Scheme for universal electricity connection, Ujjwala Yojana LPG connection, access to drinking water and Jan Dhan banking facilities, etc.
History
Public housing programme in India started with the rehabilitation of refugees immediately after independence. Till 1960, nearly five lakh families were provided houses in different parts of Northern India. In 1957, within the ambit of the second five-year plan of Prime Minister Nehru, Village Housing Programme (VHP) was introduced providing loans to individuals and cooperatives of up to ₹5,000 per unit. Only 67,000 houses could be constructed in this scheme till end of the fifth Five Year Plan (1974–1979). Another scheme introduced in the fourth called House Sites-cum-Construction Assistance Scheme (HSCAS) was also transferred to the State Sector from 1974 to 1975.
With the launch of Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, the public housing programme in India got a boost. IAY was launched as a rural housing programme targeting SC/ST and Minority population. The programme was gradually extended to cover all Below Poverty Line (BPL) population.
As a part of the continuous efforts of the Indian Government to fulfill the housing needs of rural and urban poor, Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2015 with an aim to provide affordable housing.
Under PMAY, it is proposed to build 2 crore houses for urban poor including Economically Weaker Sections and Low Income Groups in urban areas by the year 2022 through a financial assistance of from the central government. Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, a subsidy of ₹2.67 lakh is provided by the government on the interest of home loan for buying a house. The Uttar Pradesh Housing Development Council will provide houses at affordable rates under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Applications have been sought under this scheme for about 3,516 houses in Uttar Pradesh. The booking for which starts from 1 September 2020 and the last date of booking is 15 October 2020. These houses are located in 19 cities of the state of Uttar Pradesh. People from poor families will be able to buy these houses for only ₹3.5 lakh. All those people whose annual income is less than ₹3 lakh are eligible to apply for these houses. The Uttar Pradesh Housing Development Council had earlier kept the repayment time of the house up to 5 years, which has been changed to 3 years.
Indira Awas Yojana or IAY is one of the first centralised housing schemes for Indians. It was introduced by the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, in 1985. The scheme's primary objective was to provide housing for the economically weaker sections in the country, and individuals belonging to below the poverty line or BPL. At first, its benefits were exclusive to beneficiaries from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe minority groups. However, as of 2016, IAY was officially merged with the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin scheme.
The scheme
The features of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana are that the government will provide an interest subsidy of 6.5% (for EWS and LIG), 4% for MIG-I and 3% for MIG-II on housing loans availed by the beneficiaries for a period of 20 years under credit link subsidy scheme (CLSS) from the start of a loan. The houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana would be constructed through a technology that is eco-friendly, while allotting ground floors in any housing scheme under PMAY, preference will be given to differently abled and older persons.
Finance
The government has approved an investment of for construction of 6,83,724 houses for urban poor including central assistance commitment of by April 2016.
Eligibility criteria
Condition for PMAY:
(a) Beneficiary max age 70 years.