About the scheme

• The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Programme was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA) which envisions Housing for All by 2022, when the Nation completes 75 years of its Independence. 
• It was launched in 2015 to provide central assistance to implementing agencies through States and UTs for providing houses to all eligible families/ beneficiaries.
• PMAY(U) adopts a demand driven approach wherein the Housing shortage is decided based on demand assessment by States/Union Territories.
• The Mission seeks to address the housing requirement of urban poor including slum dwellers through following programme verticals:
  • Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with participation of private developers using land as a resource
  • Promotion of Affordable Housing for weaker section through credit linked subsidy
  • Affordable Housing in Partnership with Public & Private sectors
  • Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction /enhancement

 Beneficiaries

• Beneficiaries include economically weaker sections (EWS), low-income groups (LIGs) and Middle Income Groups (MIGs). 
• The EWS/LIG/MIG categories are defined as follows:
  • EWS households with an annual income upto Rs. 3.00 lakhs.
  • LIG households with an annual income between Rs. 3.00 lakhs to Rs. 6.00 lakhs.
  • MIG households with an annual income between Rs. 6.00 lakhs to Rs. 18.00 lakhs.
• EWS category of beneficiaries is eligible for assistance in all four verticals of the Missions whereas LIG and MIG categories are eligible under only Credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) component of the Mission.
• The beneficiary family should not own a pucca house and the beneficiary family should not have availed of central assistance under any housing scheme from Government of India.

Implementation:

• Mission is implemented as Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) except for the component of credit linked subsidy which will be implemented as a Central Sector Scheme.
• All statutory towns as per Census 2011 and towns notified subsequently would be eligible for coverage under the Mission.
• The Mission also promotes women empowerment by providing the ownership of houses in the name of female member or in joint name. 
• Preference is also given to differently abled persons, senior citizens, SCs, STs, OBCs, Minority, single women, transgender and other weaker & vulnerable sections of the society. 
  

Why in the news?

• The Government approved 708 proposals for construction of 3.61 lakh houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U) recently.

Reference:

1. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1725526