Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include basic infrastructure development in greenfield colonies developed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
State governments are currently developing basic infrastructure in greenfield colonies. In a letter to the Prime Minister dated June 7, Reddy wrote that the PMAY, a flagship programme of the centre, is being implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).
By 2022, the programme will provide pucca houses to all eligible families, addressing housing shortages among the economically weaker sections, including slum dwellers.
The government has acquired 68,381 acres of land and allotted one cent house sites in urban areas and 1.5 cent house sites in rural and urban development authority areas to 30.76 lakh beneficiaries spread across 17,005 greenfield colonies at an estimated cost of Rs 23,535 crore to achieve housing for all vision.
The PMAY's goals would be impossible to achieve without the development of basic infrastructure in greenfield colonies. The development of such basic infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh will cost Rs 34,109 crore.
Under the PMAY, the state government has spent a total of Rs 23,535 crore to provide housing sites to all eligible beneficiaries. The enormous cost of infrastructure development will be difficult for the state government to bear.
Reddy requested the PM to imagine a scenario in which houses are completed and ready for occupancy, but beneficiaries being unable to occupy them due to a lack of basic infrastructure. In this case, all of the money spent on acquiring land for house sites and the PMAY assistance may not yield the best results.
He urged the Prime Minister to direct MoHUA and MoRD to include the development of basic infrastructure in greenfield colonies as part of the PMAY aid to state governments.
