The Punjab government has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal intervention to bring more rural poor into the ambit of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) by relaxing its norms.
Definition restrictive
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, in a letter to the Prime Minister, has said that the definition of the ‘kutcha house’ (under the Socio Economic and Caste Census) was very restrictive, causing a large number of poor and deserving people of Punjab to be deprived of the benefits under the PMAY(G).
“Changing the norms would ensure that maximum number of rural poor population gets covered under this initiative, thereby realising the ground realities prevailing in Punjab,” said Capt. Amarinder, referring to his meeting with the Prime Minister on September 1, 2018, where the latter had raised the issue of low level of performance of Punjab under the PMAY(G).
Capt. Amarinder said that Punjab then ranked 25th among the States but, within just nine months, had improved its ranking to third.
The Chief Minister said that the State government would continue to work to ensure that every rural poor household has a ‘pucca house’.
However, a large population of the poor was excluded from PMAY(G) benefits due to the restrictive nature of the norms, he added.
‘Bricks, wooden planks’
Capt. Amarinder has requested that two components, burnt bricks and wooden planks, be included in the norms to extend the benefit of the scheme to the deserving rural poor populace, thus appreciating the ground reality prevailing in Punjab.