Panchayati Raj Minister Arun Sahoo was happy when the State received applause for its integrated effort and work style for the housing programme at the Performance Review Committee meeting on Wednesday in New Delhi where many States urged to take up the work process as the model.
Since the non-availability of construction materials and masons has posed a barrier in the implementation of the programme, the Odisha Government has started masonry training through a skill development programme. During the training period, there has been a scheme for constructing houses for poor and helpless beneficiaries. The meeting suggested other States to follow such a programme for successful implementation of the scheme.
Attending the meeting, Sahoo said that data have been collected for the incomplete house construction in Odisha. The scattered funds in one account at the block and district levels have been kept along with registering all the accounts in PFMS. The Government has set the schedule for payment of amount for beneficiary identification, work order till the final instalment.
There has been a tremendous progress in the implementation of the programme due to monthly and weekly review meetings. For proper fund utilisation, the first instalment amount for the beneficiaries has been reduced to Rs 20,000 from Rs 30,000 and the last instalment has been increased to Rs 15,000 from Rs 10,000.
Notably, the State Government has set a target to convert all the kuccha houses into pucca houses by the year 2019, and for this at least 5 lakh houses would be constructed every year. According to the Socio, Economic and Caste Census draft list 2011, around 23,40,990 out of the State’s total 86,22,827 families live in huts.
Under the Indira Awas and Biju Pucca Ghar Yojanas, in 2013-14 and 2015-16 fiscals, 6,66,280 houses have been approved and the construction work for the remaining 16,74,710 houses has been set to be completed within four years. To meet the target, at least 4 lakh Indira Awas houses would be constructed every year.
Around 3.2 lakh Indira Awas and 30,000 Biju Pucca houses have been constructed at the expenses of Rs 1,365 crore in 2014-15. About 1,500 families are moving to their concrete houses every day, and approximately Rs 2 crore is spent for construction of concrete houses per day. A total of 1.25 lakh Indira Awas houses and 25,000 Biju Pucca houses have been constructed in the first quarter of the current fiscal.