Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban

• 25 Jun 2022

For Prelims: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)- Urban, Geotagging

For Mains: PMAY-U, Welfare Schemes, Government Policies and Interventions

Why in News?

Recently, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)- Urban has completed seven years of successful implementation.

• With a total investment of Rs 8.31 Lakh Crore, PMAY-U has so far sanctioned 122.69 lakh houses, out of which more than 1 crore houses have been grounded and over 61 lakh houses have been completed and delivered to the beneficiaries.

What is Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban?

• About:
  • Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) falls under the Government’s mission - Housing for All by 2022 for urban housing being implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
  • It makes home loans affordable for the urban poor by providing a subsidy on the Interest Rate of a home loan during repayment by way of EMI (Equated Monthly Installments).
• Beneficiaries:
  • The Mission addresses urban housing shortage among the EWS/LIG and MIG categories including the slum dwellers.
    • Economically Weaker Section (EWS) - with a maximum annual family income of Rs. 3,00,000.
    • Low Income Group (LIG) - with maximum annual family income of Rs. 6,00,000) and
    • Middle Income Groups (MIG I & II) - with a maximum annual family income of Rs. 18,00,000)
    • A beneficiary family will comprise husband, wife, unmarried sons and/or unmarried daughters.
• Four Verticals of PMAY-U:
  • In Situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR):
    • This vertical will be implemented with the concept “Land as a resource” with private sector participation for providing houses to eligible slum dwellers.
      • Slum: It is a compact area of at least 300 people or about 60 - 70 households of poorly built congested tenements in an unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities
  • Affordable Housing through Credit Linked Subsidy (CLSS):
    • Beneficiaries of EWS, LIG, MIG (I &II) seeking housing loans from Banks, Housing Finance Companies and other such institutions for acquiring, new construction or enhancement of houses are eligible for an interest subsidy of:
      • 6.5% on loan amount up to Rs. 6 Lakh
      • 4% on loan amount up to Rs. 9 Lakh
      • 3% on loan amount up to Rs. 12 Lakh
  • Affordable Housing Through Partnership (AHP):
    • An affordable housing project can be a mix of houses for different categories but it will be eligible for Central Assistance, if at least 35% of the houses in the project are in the EWS category.
  • Beneficiary-led individual house construction (BLC):
    • Central Assistance up to Rs. 1.5 lakh per EWS house is provided to eligible families belonging to EWS categories for individual house construction/ enhancement.
• Demand-driven Approach:
  • PMAY-U adopts a demand-driven approach strengthening the ethos of cooperative federalism, housing shortage is decided based on demand assessment by States/Union Territories (UTs).
  • The Mission is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) except the CLSS vertical of the PMAY-U which is being implemented as a Central Sector Scheme.
    • Central Sector Schemes are 100% funded by the Union government and implemented by the Central Government machinery.
    • Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) a certain percentage of the funding is borne by the States and the implementation is by the State Governments.
• Geotagging:
  • Geotagging is a process of adding geographical identification to various media like photography.
    • Under the PMAY-U guidelines, it is mandatory for the state government to ensure that all houses built under the scheme are geotagged to the Bhuvan HFA (housing for all) application.
      • Bhuvan is an Indian Geo Platform developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
      • It is a web-based application which allows users to access various map related services.
• Women Empowerment:
  • The Mission promotes Woman Empowerment by providing the ownership of houses in the name of a female member or in joint names.
  • Preference is also given to women (with overriding preference to widows, single women), persons belonging to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Other Backward Classes, Minorities, Persons with disabilities and Transgender.
• Initiatives under PMAY-U:
  • Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHCs) :
    • It is a sub-scheme under PMAY-U.
    • This will provide ease of living to urban migrants/ poor in the Industrial Sector as well as in non-formal urban economies to get access to dignified affordable rental housing close to their workplace.
  • Global Housing Technology Challenge :
    • It aims to identify and mainstream a basket of innovative construction technologies from across the globe for the housing construction sector that are sustainable, eco-friendly and disaster-resilient.
  • CLSS Awas Portal (CLAP):
    • It is a common platform where all stakeholders i.e., MoHUA, Central Nodal Agencies, Primary Lending Institutions, Beneficiaries and Citizens are integrated in a real-time environment.
    • The portal facilitates processing of applications along with tracking of subsidy status by beneficiaries.

Source: PIB