With the objective of building houses for all and providing the ownership of home to all by 2022, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) was launched in 2015. By providing subsidies on the interest paid on the housing loans, the scheme aims to encourage people to build their own houses. As one of the most ambitious schemes of the government for providing affordable housing, the scheme covers all statutory towns of the country. Since 2015, the scheme has benefitted and provided home ownership to lakhs of applicants. If you plan to own a house of your own, this scheme can be of benefit because of the subsidy provided by the government on the home loan.

Benefits of PMAY Scheme

The assistance provided under the PMAY scheme becomes a great help for those who aspire to build their own houses. The benefit is extended through the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS). Due to the subsidy, the housing loan becomes affordable. The upfront subsidy on the loan amount decreases the EMI amount and the burden on the family to pay the hefty interest amount. The scheme is applicable for people belonging to economically weaker sections and low-income groups. People of these identified categories become eligible for receiving different kinds of benefits. The maximum benefit is available for the economically weaker section. Subsidy recipients under the scheme are allowed to both construct and buy a new house. 

Who Is Eligible to Receive Benefit Under PMAY?

To be eligible for receiving benefits under the PMAY scheme, the applicant is mandatorily required to not have his own pucca house. Also, PMAY eligibility rules mandate that a family can only be considered fully eligible if the benefit of any other housing-related scheme of Government of India has not been availed by the beneficiary family previously. Because the scheme attempts to provide advantage to families that fall in the categories of either weaker section, low-income or mid-income group, eligible families are only those who have a maximum income of Rs.18 lakhs per annum.

This cap assists government in extending benefit to those who need it most. Further, to ensure that the benefit reaches to eligible people, the scheme has this provision of giving only one subsidy to married couples in case of joint ownership of the house. From a family, each independent member qualifies for taking the benefit of the scheme. For example, if there is a family of three and parents own a house, the independent son or daughter can claim the benefit under PMAY.

PMAY List

For availing the benefit of PMAY, people must register for it. Once the registration is done, the government takes the help of tehsils and panchayats and uses the SECC 2011 (Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011) to select the beneficiaries. PMAY list is updated on the website in two categories. These categories are urban and rural. If you have registered for PMAY, with the help of registration number, you can check whether your name has appeared in the PMAY list or not.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna in Maharashtra

As the second most populous state of India, Maharashtra has an important role if PMAY is to achieve its objective of housing for all. Maharashtra Housing and Area Development is responsible for the promotion and execution of PMAY in the state. PMAY Maharashtra has the objective of extending housing loan subsidy help to 19.2 lakh beneficiaries. The effort of the state in development of houses is easily noticeable. Under the PMAY (urban), among the best-performing states, Maharashtra is only behind Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. By bringing in more than 5 lakh beneficiaries under the scheme, the state has proactively participated to take the scheme to the people of the country and has helped the centre in its effort.

The Covid-19 outbreak considerably affected the progress of PMAY. As of now, PMAY status indicates a major slowdown in the coverage of the scheme. However, the target of the government has been to extend this benefit to more and more number of people. To realise the same, the extension of the scheme has been done and PMAY-Gramin is now available till March 2024.  Furthermore, the Government of India has been committed to completing the objective of the housing for all mission since the launch of this initiative. For encouraging states and union territories (UTs) to implement the scheme better, the government also came up with the idea of recognizing the best-performing states and UTs by giving them an award for their effort.

Based on the key parameters of the government, which includes monthly progress, creation of demand, number of completed houses and so on, best-performing states under the PMAY scheme are determined. Started in 2019, this award is also applicable in the category of the promotion of sustainable and eco-friendly technologies in home building. Among the UTs, the efforts of Puducherry bagged the UT the award for the ‘Best Performing Union Territory in India for Implementing the PMAY’ in 2021.