Six lakh houses for BPL people in next 3 years

With the assembly elections in sight, it is announcement time for the Maharashtra government. After two packages for Konkan and North Maharashtra and huge hike in salary for doctors and other state government employees, the state cabinet on Thursday announced six lakh houses for the rural population Below Poverty Line (BPL) in the next three years.

Though the houses will be under Indira Awas Yojana, sponsored by the central government and is implemented for years, the state government has decided to speed it up and has allotted an additional amount per house to be built.  Of the 9.7 lakh families in BPL, 3.7 lakh families have been given the houses in past five years. The cost of these houses was Rs45,000 each.

The government has now decided to complete the remaining six lakh houses in the next three years with more that 2 lakh houses every year. The government has also increased the expenditure bracket to Rs70,000 per house.

“The houses in the rural areas of Maharashtra can easily be constructed with Rs70,000 with the central government’s contribution of Rs26,500 and the beneficiary bearing a cost of Rs1500. the state government has decided to give every homeless BPL family a house in the next three years,” said housing secretary Sitaram Kunte.

The state government will bear an additional burden of Rs6,12.5 crore per year. “The District Rural Development Agency will shoulder the responsibility of the construction of the houses and our emphasis will be to have maximum participation of the benificiary family to maintain transparency in the process. In case the family does not have the land to build a house, the district collector concerned will provide it,” an official from the housing department said.

Interestingly, 3.17 crore people in Maharashtra are under BPL and the percentage comes to more than 30% of the total population of the state. Of them, according to the 2006 data of the government, 9.7 families are under BPL.