Telangana: Centre’s share for 2BHKs ‘meagre’

Hyderabad: The BJP may be crying hoarse about the Central government’s contribution for the construction of double bedroom houses in Telangana, but facts and figures tell a different story. The Centre’s share in the dignity housing scheme is marginal both in rural and urban projects.

In the double bedroom houses constructed in rural areas, the share of the Central government under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) is a mere 14 per cent. Each unit is being constructed at a cost of Rs 5.04 lakh and the Central government’s contribution is just Rs 70,000 and the remaining expenditure of Rs 4.32 lakh is being borne by the Telangana government.

Similarly, for houses constructed in Urban Local Bodies, about Rs 5.30 lakh is spent on each unit. Again, the Central government’s share is Rs 1.5 lakh and the remaining Rs 3.8 lakh is paid by the State government.

Under the GHMC limits, each unit is being constructed at a cost of Rs 7 lakh, and the Centre’s share remains a constant Rs 1.5 lakh here too, which works out to 21 per cent with the State government pitching in with the remaining Rs 5.5 lakh. It is against this backdrop that BJP national president JP Nadda’s comments at a public meeting in Mahabubnagar on Friday sound hollow and without conviction. He made a vain attempt to claim that the State government was constructing double bedroom houses mainly on account of the contribution from the Centre. He even went on to accuse the State government of trying to pass of the PMAY as Telangana’s Double Bedroom Housing scheme despite figures clearly indicating that it was the State which was footing over 90 per cent of the housing cost bill.

Telangana, incidentally, is among the 18 Non-Special Category States where more households (66 per cent) receive benefits from a State-specific housing scheme when compared to a Central housing scheme (34 per cent). Telangana ranks fourth in terms of coverage by State-specific housing schemes, according to Telangana Socio-Economic Outlook 2022 report.

The striking aspect about Telangana’s double bedroom houses is the zero contribution by beneficiaries. Unlike most States where beneficiaries are made to bear a part of the construction cost for the houses under PMAY, Telangana beneficiaries neither need to take a loan nor contribute towards the housing cost, a senior official from Telangana State Housing Corporation Limited told ‘Telangana Today’. Till March 31, 2022, the State government had completed over 1.11 lakh housing units at a cost of Rs 10,796.13 crore. Of these, the Central government’s share is a mere Rs 1,120 crore for urban houses and Rs 190 crore for rural houses. In the latest Budget presented by Finance Minister T Harish Rao, the State government proposed an allocation of Rs 12,000 crore for the double bedroom programme.