10 years on, 200 Maloya houses yet to be allotted

Around 200 houses built in Maloya under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and later converted into the Affordable Housing Scheme have remained unallotted since 2015. Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari raised a question regarding these houses in the Lok Sabha recently. He asked whether it was a fact that houses constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) in Maloya remained unallotted and were in dilapidated condition, particularly when Chandigarh was yet to achieve the slum-free status. He also sought details on the number of houses built under various PMAY-U and PMAY 2.0 projects in Chandigarh since their inception.

In response to Tewari’s question, Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Tokhan Sahu stated that 2,195 houses constructed under JNNURM in Maloya were later converted into Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHCs). Of these, 1,997 houses have been allotted to beneficiaries on a rental basis and are being used. These houses were converted into ARHC units after the closure of JNNURM on March 31, 2014.

Tewari said actually the number of unallotted houses in Maloya, which had become decrepit, might even be substantially more than what had been disclosed in the answer. The ministry further stated that 1,255 families in Chandigarh had benefited from interest subsidies under the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) pertaining to the PMAY-U. However, the UT has not yet submitted any proposals under other verticals of the scheme.

Tewari also questioned about the number of beneficiaries under each of the four verticals of the PMAY-U in Chandigarh since its inception, along with the year-wise budgetary allocation and expenditure under that scheme as well as the PMAY 2.0.

In response, the minister stated that based on the nine years of PMAY-U implementation experience, the scheme has been revamped into the PMAY-U 2.0, also called the “Housing for All’ Mission”. Launched on September 1, 2024, this scheme is aimed at providing affordable housing to one crore additional eligible beneficiaries through four verticals: Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC), Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP), Affordable Rental Housing (ARH) and Interest Subsidy Scheme (ISS).