What is the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban?

• The government had launched the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) on June 25, 2015, to provide pucca houses to all eligible beneficiaries by 2022.
• The PMAY-U is one of the two schemes envisioned under the PMAY-U. It is focused on the urban areas, while the other one—PMAY-G—is for rural areas.
• The scheme has four verticals:

1. In-situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR);
2.   Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS);
3. Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP) and
4. Beneficiary-led individual house construction/enhancements (BLC).

What is the Beneficiary-led individual house construction/enhancements (BLC)?

• Under the BLC vertical, a beneficiary receives a financial assistance of Rs 2.5 lakh from the government to build his or her house.
• The PMAY-U guidelines define a beneficiary family as a family comprising of “husband, wife and unmarried sons and/ or unmarried daughters.”
• The beneficiary family should not own a pucca house (an all-weather dwelling unit) either in his/her name or in the name of any member of his/her family in any part of India.
• Under the scheme guidelines, an adult earning member (irrespective of marital status) can be treated as a separate household. However, to avail the scheme, he or she should not own a pucca house (an all-weather dwelling unit) in his/her name in any part of India.
• Under the PMAY-G, a beneficiary can avail the BLC component for the enhancement of his or her existing house. However, only persons with a pucca house having a built-up area of less than 21 sq.m are eligible to avail this facility.

What is geotagging and is it mandatory under the PMAY-U?

• 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, which has been developed by the government for the monitoring of the scheme.

What is Bhuvan HFA?

• Bhuvan is an Indian Geo Platform developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It is a web-based application which allows users to access various map related services.
• The application also provides facility of geotagging of images of houses built or being constructed under the PMAY-U.

Reference:

1. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-pmay-u-who-can-avail-it-7918306/