New Delhi: The Union authorities on Monday signed off on two welfare measures because it permitted a cash-transfer installment for farmers and public housing for the poor beneath an ongoing flagship scheme, in its first set of government choices a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for a 3rd straight time period.
Approving the seventeenth installment of PM Kisan money switch for farmers, Modi signed his first file authorising the discharge of ₹20,000 crore for 93 million eligible cultivators.
Later within the night, the newly fashioned Union Cupboard led by Modi met for the primary time and permitted a proposal to assemble 30 million rural and concrete homes beneath the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the federal government’s flagship public housing programme that was launched on February 24, 2019.
Of the 30 million homes, 20 million will likely be in-built rural areas, whereas the remaining will likely be in-built city areas throughout the nation over the subsequent 5 years, an official stated, requesting anonymity.
A senior authorities official stated the Cupboard’s announcement on Monday is similar as made within the interim finances offered on February 1. The federal government had allotted ₹54,500 crore for PMAY-Rural and ₹26,170.61 crore for PMAY-City.
Beneath PM Kisan, the federal government offers earnings help of ₹6,000 a yr to farmers with a sound enrolment. It’s paid in three equal money transfers of ₹2,000, one each 4 months.
“Ours is a authorities absolutely dedicated to Kisan Kalyan (farmers’ welfare). It’s subsequently becoming that the primary file signed on taking cost is expounded to farmer welfare,” an official assertion by the federal government quoted Modi as saying.
PM Kisan is a central-sector scheme with 100% funding from the Centre. Identification of beneficiaries is the accountability of state governments, as per scheme pointers. Any land-owning farming family can enrol itself topic to exclusions, resembling earnings ceilings, tax funds and complete asset worth.
Since its launch, the federal government has disbursed greater than ₹2.24 lakh crore to eligible farmers in numerous installments, in line with official information.
Money transfers beneath the programme are often made forward of sowing season, in order that farmers can utilise the quantity to fulfill cultivation prices. The newest instalment was due in Might however needed to be deferred because of the Mannequin Code of Conduct for the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress took a swipe on the Centre over the delayed disbursement of funds.
“The sixteenth installment of PM Kisan Nidhi was due in January 2024 however was delayed by a month for the prime minister’s electoral calculus… The seventeenth installment of PM Kisan Nidhi was due in April/Might 2024 however was delayed by the enforcement of the Mannequin Code of Conduct. The one-third Pradhan Mantri has carried out no person an ideal favour by signing this file: these are reliable entitlements attributable to farmers in line with his authorities’s personal coverage. He has made a behavior of changing routine administrative choices into some nice bonanza that he’s bestowing upon the folks,” Congress normal secretary Jairam Ramesh posted on X.
Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar expressed gratitude to Modi, saying: “A number of lakhs of farmers in Punjab will profit from this determination. The cash will likely be transferred in financial institution accounts of beneficiary farmers which is able to increase their earnings.”
The Centre had launched the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in 2015-16 to help eligible rural and concrete households in development of homes with fundamental facilities.
In response to the dwell dashboard maintained by the Union ministry of housing and concrete affairs (MoHUA), 11.86 million homes have been sanctioned thus far in city areas, and eight.35 million homes have been constructed. In rural areas, greater than 25.5 million homes had been constructed beneath the scheme, in opposition to the sanctioned goal of 29.5 million.
The PMAY is without doubt one of the flagship schemes of the Modi authorities since its first time period, searching for to alleviate poverty and offering housing for all. Whereas PMAY(U) was launched in June 2015, PMAY(R) was launched in October 2019.
The MoHUA official stated that particulars of a sub-scheme of PMAY(U) proposed by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to assist folks within the middle-income group purchase or construct their very own homes could be drawn up quickly and despatched to Cupboard for approval. The scheme was first recommended by Modi in his Independence Day deal with in 2023.
This new scheme is about to switch the Credit score Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS), a sub-scheme of PMAY(U), which was discontinued in March 2021. The sub-scheme by the way had the best contribution (as a lot as ₹2.67 lakh) of the Union authorities in comparison with the opposite three sub-schemes. A complete of two.4 million homes had been sanctioned beneath this sub-scheme.