Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on May 14, announced an affordable rental housing scheme. Government-funded housing in cities will be converted into the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) through the public-private partnership (PPP) model. The scheme will be launched under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), FM said.
The move will help migrant workers and urban poor to live in cities by paying reasonable rents at government complexes.
Amid coronavirus outbreak, the migrant laborers and urban poor face challenges to get rental homes at affordable prices. The Central government will soon provide affordable rental houses to migrant workers and the urban poor.
Sitharaman said that the central government will incentivize manufacturing units, industries and institutions to develop affordable housing complexes on their private lands.
The central government agencies and state government organizations will be also be encouraged to develop housing complexes, Sitharaman added. The details of the scheme will be released soon.
Meanwhile, The Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme for the middle-income group with the annual income of ₹6 lakh to ₹18 lakh to buy affordable housing units is extended till March 31, 2021. The scheme was last extended till March 2020. Around 2.5 lakh middle income families will be benefitted in the long run, Sitharaman said. The Finance Minister said that it will lead to an investment of ₹70,000 crores in the housing sector and also create jobs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a ₹20 lakh-crore stimulus package, aimed at making the country self-reliant and reviving a stalled economy. The package will focus on land, labor, liquidity and laws and will cater to various sectors including cottage industries, micro, small & medium enterprises, the working class, the middle class and others. This included ₹1.7 lakh crore package comprising of free food grains and cash to poor for three months announced in March, and ₹5.6 lakh crore stimulus provided through various monetary policy measures by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
