The central government's department of housing and urban affairs has announced that Andhra Pradesh has bagged the best performance in three categories - best practice, innovation and best project practice.

The state has also been selected for 'project monitoring tools' and 'innovative construction technology' under special award category. Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy received the award via video conference at his camp office here.

Extending warm greetings to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other officials on the occasion of New Year, Reddy stated that Andhra Pradesh has taken the lead in the country in implementation of PMAY (Urban).

"We have observed that majority of the urban poor do not possess a house site and are therefore unable to construct a house of their own. Government of Andhra Pradesh has taken a special drive to provide house sites to 30.75 lakh eligible poor people throughout state. For this purpose 68,677 acres of land which includes 25,433 acres of government land, has been acquired, plotted and distributed to the eligible poor families," he said.

The Chief Minister noted that 20.21 lakh houses have been sanctioned so far under the scheme. He said the government will ensure that all the houses are completed as per the schedule before 2022.

The state government has covered significant ground in achieving the goal of 'Housing for All by 2022', by distributing housing lots to 100 per cent eligible poor families and sanctioning houses to 67 per cent of eligible poor families.

He sought additional sanction of 8.95 lakh houses by Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs and sanction of soft loans of Rs 12,410 crore by HUDCO or other financial institutions for the infrastructure development in the housing colonies saying this will help the state government to complete its journey towards achieving the desired goal. He urged the Prime Minister to intervene in the matter.

The Chief Minister also observed that construction of houses in large numbers will contribute to post-Covid economic revival.

"At this crucial juncture, when the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the consumption taking a nose dive and consequently aggregate demand witnessing a steep fall, construction of the houses at such large scale will give a huge boost to the economy besides providing massive employment to people belonging to 30 occupational categories such as masonry, carpentry, plumbing etc," he added.