Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Minister Rabi Narayan Naik on Monday said the persons living separately from their fathers after marriage are eligible to get houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
The minister said his government has broadened the criteria for availing PMAY houses to include more eligible people in the state. “We have set 10 criteria to identify the eligible beneficiaries and allot houses to them within six months. Over 20-22 lakh people will benefit from this process,” he added.
Coming down on previous BJD government, Naik said lakhs of eligible beneficiaries in the state were deprived of PMAY houses due to inadequate data submitted to the Central government. The BJD government also participate in preparing the national list of PMY beneficiaries in 2017-18. As a result, these people were denied the houses, he added.
He further said the government was taking steps to prepare clusters to allot land to landless people under the “Viksit Village Viksit Odisha”. After taking the ownership of the land, they can build the PMAY houses. These clusters would have all basic facilities including power and drinking water supply, he added.