Bhubaneswar: Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Minister Pratap Jena Tuesday informed the Assembly that the government has set a target of converting around 8 lakh kuccha houses in the state into pucca houses.
The statement of the minister came as a written reply when he was asked to respond on the status of conversion of kuccha houses into pucca houses. The minister claimed that as per the 2011 Social Economic Caste Census a total of 42,04,199 kuccha houses were identified in the state while the total beneficiary families stood at 27,49,617.
Jena told the House that from 2014-15 to November 23, 2019 the state witnessed construction of 23,05,598 pucca houses. He also said that many central and state schemes are being implemented simultaneously to convert the kuccha houses into pucca ones. The minister also said the left out kuccha houses as shown in the data also have some partially constructed pucca houses which needed to be made into fool-proof pucca houses.
According to the written statement of the minister, the state government has set a target of converting 8,18,502 kuccha houses into pucca houses by the end of this financial year. The minister said that the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Indira Awas Yojana, Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana and other schemes had been roped in to construct pucca houses in the state.
According to the government, `20,945 crore has been utilised from 2014-15 to till date to construct the pucca houses under six different schemes in the state. `2973.9 crore was spent on the housing scheme during the ongoing fiscal.
The minister admitted before the government that the BJD government had promised to ensure pucca houses for all in its 2014 announcement and claimed that works are going on to fulfill the target.