State bags award for Central housing scheme :

1. With 81 per cent houses under the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojna having been constructed, the state has bagged the top slot under the scheme for its overall performance at the national level. The award was received by the Secretary, rural development in Delhi.

2. Based on the social and economic caste-based census of 2011, each beneficiary is provided Rs 1.30 lakh to construct a house and it is implemented through the development blocks in a district.

3. The state was allotted 4,874 houses in 2016-17 and 2,511 in 2017-18. Some of these were built with the help of labour from the MGNREGA. In the financial year, the government is supposed to construct 900 houses. Though 762 houses have been approved for the beneficiaries, construction of only 51 houses has been completed.

4. The availability of suitable land for the scheme, which is funded in the 90:10 ratio by the Centre and the state, was, however, acting as a deterrent for achieving its complete target in some districts. The problem arose as the beneficiaries did not accept the land given to them.

5. Figures revealed that as against the target of 41 houses for the current year, only 28 had been approved in Solan while none had been completed till now. As many as 518 houses had been constructed in 2016-17 and 2017-18 out of the targeted 543 in the rural areas in Solan district. In Sirmaur district, 1,000 houses had been constructed out of the 1,104 in the rural areas.

6. The progress of the scheme had been affected for the last two years and out of the 148 houses, only 19 could be completed in 2018-19 while out of the 25 targeted to be completed this year, none had as yet been constructed.he delay in receipt of targets and fulfilling the online procedures had added The some delay in achieving the targets this year though the district has a few houseless people.