Naveen Patnaik writes to PM Modi seeking more houses for Odisha under PMAY-G

BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking 1.84 lakh houses for cyclone Fani-affected families and 13 lakh houses for others from tribal and Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi (KBK) districts under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna-Gramin (PMAY-G).
In his letter, Naveen drew the Prime Minister’s attention to the woes of families of KBK and tribal-dominated districts and of those, who have lost their houses in cyclone Fani that hit the state in May 2019.
As the Union ministry of rural development (MoRD) had allowed states to identify eligible left out families under PMAY-G through the Awaas Plus portal by March 7, 2019, the chief minister said that the state could identify only 35,000 families within the stipulated period. He said the government machinery was pre-occupied with the preparatory work for general elections 2019, network connectivity issues and Maoist-violence in some pockets of state at that time.
“When MoRD opened Awaas Plus window for only the 14 districts affected by cyclone Fani, another 7.87 lakh families were identified. The state government also conducted identification through state-developed rural housing portal and found 5.09 lakh eligible families in remaining 16 districts, not affected by Fani,” the chief minister noted.
Naveen requested to cover these 13 lakh families under the Centre’s rural housing scheme by migrating their data from the state-developed RH portal to the permanent wait list (PWL) of PMAY-G.
Reminding the Prime Minister of his commitment made in May 2019 to allot five lakh PMAY-G houses under special allotment to the Fano-affected families, Naveen said there are 1.84 lakh families, whose houses got damaged by Fani and they are not otherwise entitled for availing normal PMAY(G) houses.
“These families may be considered for special allotment under PMAY-G houses, waiving the pre-condition of their names to be in PWL of PMAY-G,” said Naveen.
Even as the MoRD rejected the state government’s demand, the chief minister also sought Modi’s intervention for opening of the Awaas Plus window for the entire state for one month to migrate the data of eligible families waiting to get houses under PMAY-G. Naveen said the move will be a step towards achieving shelter security to all.
BJD’s Rajya Sabha member Sasmit Patra also raised the issue in the parliament recently.
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