Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has penned a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appealing for the allocation of housing funds under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
In the letter, the Chief Minister has urged for support to provide housing benefits to 6,99,439 families currently on the permanent waiting list for housing, as well as an additional 47,090 families identified in the Chhattisgarh Government’s Socio-Economic Survey 2023.
Baghel has emphasized that the state government has already taken the initiative to release its share to extend housing benefits to these families. He further referred to a previous letter dated July 03, 2023, wherein the state government had requested allocation targets for 8,19,999 families under Awas Plus, in addition to the 6,99,439 families on the permanent waiting list.
Moreover, Baghel noted that the Government of India had withdrawn the target of 7,81,999 houses allocated for the year 2021-22. To date, there has been no response from the Government of India regarding the state government’s requests.
The Chief Minister pointed out that the permanent waiting list was created by the Government of India based on 2011 census data. In 2018, the Awas Plus list was compiled, including 8,18,989 eligible families in addition to those on the permanent waiting list. Baghel also highlighted that the Government of India conducts a Socio-Economic and Caste Census/BPL survey every ten years, which is yet to be conducted.
In response to this gap, the state government conducted the Socio-Economic Survey 2023, identifying 47,090 homeless families based on the parameters of Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011. Considering this, the state government has decided to allocate funds from the state’s share to construct houses for the remaining 6,99,438 families on the permanent waiting list and the 47,090 homeless families identified in the Economic Survey 2023 as part of the housing scheme.
