Hon’ble Prime Minister addresses ‘Leaving No Citizen Behind’ webinar on post-Budget announcements

Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today addressed a post Union Budget 2022 webinar on the theme ‘Leaving No Citizen Behind’ to discuss ways for effective implementation of initiatives announced in Union Budget 2022-23. This is the second webinar in the series. Concerned Union Ministers, representatives of the state governments and other stakeholders were present on the occasion.

At the outset, the Hon’ble Prime Minister mentioned about ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas’ and said that this mantra has been the inspiration behind all the policies of the Government. “Our pledges for the Azadi Ka Amrit kaal will be realized only with the efforts of everyone and everyone will be able to make that effort only when every individual, section and region gets the full benefit of development”, Hon’ble Prime Minister said.

Hon’ble Prime Minister added that the Union Budget 2022 created a clear roadmap to achieve the targets of various schemes like PM Awas Yojana, Gramin Sadak Yojana and Jal Jeevan Mission. With respect to allocation of funds for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in Budget 2022, Hon’ble Prime Minister said that the Union Budget has allocated ₹ 48,000 Crore to PM Awas Yojana and efforts are being made to achieve the target of building 80 lakh houses.

During the webinar, Hon’ble Prime Minister also spoke about construction of Light House Projects under PMAY(Urban) in six cities across the country, using new technologies for promoting affordable housing. He also emphasised that uptake of such construction technologies must be encouraged for other affordable housing projects in both urban and rural areas of the country.

To read the full text of Hon’ble Prime Minister’s address at webinar, click here: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1800489

After the inaugural address by Hon’ble Prime Minister, different break-out sessions were lined-up to discuss and brainstorm with experts on how to lay down action points and strategize on Budget implementation roadmap. For the session on ‘Housing For All’, the topic of discussion was ‘Realizing Housing for All in AmritKaal’ on the sub-themes:

1. Facilitating universal coverage of affordable housing
2. Convergence with other schemes, urban planning and infrastructure strategies for enhancing delivery of affordable housing
3. Enhancing private participation in affordable housing sector

Shri Ajay Jain, Special Chief Secretary (Urban Development & Housing), Andhra Pradesh laid emphasis on the importance of houses in one’s life and how it adds to the self-confidence and growth of a human being.  He focused on convergence of schemes for providing planned, quality housing with civic and other necessary infrastructure. He underlined the progress of PMAY(U) in Andhra Pradesh, the Best Practices adopted and the key components for success of the Mission. Shri Jain concluded by saying that the Budgetary measures will pave the way for a strong and self-reliant AatmaNirbhar Bharat.

Shri Harsh Vardhan Patodia, CREDAI spoke on enhancing private participation in affordable housing. He said that to supplement Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Housing for All’, many CREDAI members have launched affordable housing projects across country. “Since 2015, at an average of 2.5 lakh units per year, the private sector has constructed more than 15 lakh units in the Affordable Housing segment,” Shri Patodia mentioned. He proposed several solutions that would benefit the affordable housing sector in the long run – with respect to threshold limit, Input Tax Credit, extension of CLSS for MIG, funding for land for affordable housing projects – to name a few.

Shri Shubhagto Dasgupta, Senior Fellow (Center for Policy Research) shared his insights on facilitating universal coverage of affordable housing. He explained that housing needs to be understood not only by number of dwelling units constructed, but as liveable habitats. He underlined significant achievements under PMAY(U) and gave recommendations for PMAY 2.0 on facilitating universal coverage of adequate, accessible and affordable housing.

From the PMAY-Gramin side, various speaker and scheme stakeholders including State Secretaries and Experts on Rural Housing people involved in implementation of PMAYG, and Civil society members participated.

Dr. Manish Ranjan Secretary, Rural Development, Jharkhand spoke on  “Translating Prime Minister’s Vision into Reality (Effective Implementation of PMAY-G in Jharkhand)”. Dr. P K Das, Visiting Professor, School of Planning & Architecture, Delhi & International Consultant, UNDP spoke on Employment generation, training, design, cost, green housing and environmental aspect under PMAYG.  Dr. S.K. Negi, Chief Scientist, CBRI spoke on Demo Houses in Uttar Pradesh and Assam. The session successfully created awareness and discussed broad theme areas of future innovations and initiatives to be undertaken under PMAY-G.

The closing remarks were given by Shri Manoj Joshi, Secretary, MoHUA. Shri Joshi re-emphasised on the Budgetary announcements and recommendations. He highlighted the campaign of the State Government of Andhra Pradesh for providing land titles to landless beneficiaries and mentioned that the model can be replicated across the country along with provision of basic infrastructure services. Throwing light on universal coverage of affordable housing, Secretary, MoHUA mentioned that housing must be understood not just as a dwelling unit but as the habitat in which a family lives. He laid focus on creating an outcome-based assessment framework for affordable housing under PMAY(U) in the States/UTs on lines of Swachh Survekshan. Talking about the points highlighted by President, CREDAI, Shri Joshi mentioned that developers will benefit from getting easy finance from finance institutes.

Summing up the discussions, Shri Joshi highlighted that construction of one house leads to employment of 314 days. Laying focus on employment generation, he mentioned that residential construction is one of the largest sources of employment in rural areas. He welcomed the suggestions related to up-skilling of labours and other practitioners of construction sector. He also acknowledged the role of educational institutions in spreading awareness about new and innovative construction technologies in housing construction. He welcomed the suggestion of the speakers to mainstream the use of renewable energy in rural areas,. Secretary, MoHUA further highlighted the need to promote sustainable building practices in convergence with livelihood programmes in rural areas. He emphasised that suggestions given by panelists and participants will be pursued further to improve the functioning of PMAY Schemes and realise the vision of “Housing for All”.

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