Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has revised some criteria for exclusion from Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G).
As per the revised conditions to be eligible to avail houses under the PMAY-G, the state government had removed the earlier criterion of ownership of two-wheelers/fishing boats. Now, the people having the ownership of two-wheelers and fishing boats are eligible to apply for the houses under the scheme.
Similarly, the monthly income for a member of the family has been revised from the existing Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 to be eligible for the Central scheme.
In place of the family owning 2.5 acre or more land with at least one irrigation equipment, the new guidelines say the family owning 2.5 acre or more land is excluded. In a similar change, the family owning 2.5 acre or more of irrigated land for two or more crop seasons has been revised to those having 5 acre or more of unirrigated land for exclusion from the scheme.
Now, the people paying income tax or professional tax will be excluded from the scheme while the ownership of refrigerator and landline phone has been removed from the exclusion criteria.
The owners of motorised three/four-wheeler, people having Kisan Credit Cards with credit limit of Rs 50,000 or above, households with any member as a government employee and families with non-agricultural enterprises registered with the government have been excluded.
It may be noted that the PMAY-G was launched in 2016 to provide housing for the poorest segments of society. Beneficiaries are selected through a rigorous three-stage validation process including Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC 2011) and Awaas+ (2018) surveys, Gram Sabha approvals, and geo-tagging.
