PMAY- URBAN

• The mission seeks to address the housing requirement of the urban poor including slum dwellers.
• A slum is defined as a compact area of at least 300 people or about 60 – 70 households of poorly built congested tenements in an unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities.
• Beneficiaries include an Economically weaker section (EWS), low-income groups (LIGs), and Middle-Income Groups (MIGs).
• The annual income cap is up to Rs 3 lakh for EWS, Rs 3-6 lakhs for LIG, and Rs 6 + -18 lakhs for MIG.
• EWS category of beneficiaries is eligible for assistance in all four verticals of the Missions whereas LIG and MIG categories are eligible under only Credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) component of the Mission.
• For identification as an EWS or LIG beneficiary under the scheme, an individual loan applicant will submit a self-certificate/ affidavit as proof of income.
• A beneficiary family will comprise a husband, wife, unmarried sons, and/or unmarried daughters.
• The beneficiary family should not own a pucca house either in his/her name or in the name of any member of his/her family in any part of India to be eligible to receive central assistance under the mission.
• States/UTs, at their discretion, may decide a cut-off date on which beneficiaries need to be residents of that urban area for being eligible to take benefits under the scheme.

4. PMAY (U) Features

5. How many houses have been built?

• As per information available on the PMAY-U, 1.21 crore houses have been sanctioned under the scheme till May 9, 2022, of which 58.82 lakh houses have been completed/delivered.
• A maximum number of 28.17 lakh houses have been built under the BLC vertical.
• The remaining 30.65 lakh houses have been built under the other three verticals ISSR, CLSS, and AHP.

6. How much money has been spent on the PMAY-U?

7. Components of PMAY-U

8. What is the Beneficiary-led individual house construction/enhancements (BLC)?

• Under the BLC vertical, a beneficiary receives a financial assistance of Rs 2.5 lakh from the government to build his or her house. The PMAY-U guidelines define a beneficiary family as a family comprising of “husband, wife and unmarried.
• The beneficiary family should not own a pucca house (an all-weather dwelling unit) either in his/her name or in the name of any member of his/her family in any part of India,” state the scheme guidelines.
• Under the scheme guidelines, an adult earning member (irrespective of marital status) can be treated as a separate household.
• However, to avail of the scheme, he or she should not own a pucca house (an all-weather dwelling unit) in his /her name in any part of India.
• Under the PMAY-G, a beneficiary can avail of the BLC component for the enhancement of his or her existing house.
• However, only persons with a pucca house having a built-up area of less than 21 sq.m are eligible to avail this facility.

9. What is geotagging and is it mandatory under the PMAY-U?

• Geotagging is a process of adding geographical identification to various media like photography.
• Under the PMAY-U guidelines, it is mandatory for the state government to ensure that all houses built under the scheme are geotagged to the Bhuvan HFA (housing for all) application, which has been developed by the government for the monitoring of the scheme. 

10. What is Bhuvan HFA?

• Bhuvan is an Indian Geo Platform developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
• It is a web-based application that allows users to access various map-related services. The application also provides the facility of geotagging images of houses built or being constructed under the PMAY-U.

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