‘Not a single house constructed in 2 years under Sardar Awas Scheme in Gujarat’

The information was provided by Panchayat, Rural Housing, Rural Development department minister Arjunsinh Chauhan in reply to a series of questions by Congress members.

Gandhinagar: Neither a single house was constructed nor a rupee allocated under Sardar Awas Scheme in the last two years in Gujarat, the state Assembly was informed on Wednesday.

The information was provided by Panchayat, Rural Housing, Rural Development department minister Arjunsinh Chauhan in reply to a series of questions by Congress members.

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Against the unit cost of a new house of Rs 1 lakh, the state government provided Rs 40,000 to the beneficiary, he said.

The state has provisioned Rs 98 lakhs for the next fiscal for the Sardar Awas Yojna and in the current year 2021-22, Rs 1.4 crore was provisioned for the entire state for the scheme, out of which Rs 32.45 lakh was shown as utilised.

In a written reply to a question, the minister also informed that the state had utilised Rs 352.36 lakhs on the amount allotted for the interest paid on the central provident fund and also for the leave salary and gratuity of the board. The government had also allocated Rs 1,000 crore as revolving fund.

Compared to the Sardar Awas scheme, the state government spent a sizeable amount in the housing construction under the PM Awas Yojna.

While replying to a couple of questions, the minister informed that the department had allocated and disbursed a total of Rs 6.47 crore for 2,225 units built in the Kutch district under the PMAY.

The department had also sanctioned a total of 8,911 PMAY units in the Dahod district in two years, while 4,050 units were constructed in 2020-21.