Odisha has received approval for one lakh additional houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), taking the state’s latest allocation under the rural housing scheme to five lakh units, chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Union rural development minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced at an event in Balangir on Saturday.
The announcement was made at a PMAY event where both leaders reaffirmed the government’s commitment to provide pucca houses to all eligible rural families in the state. The additional allocation follows approval for four lakh houses based on the Awas Plus 2024 survey, according to the chief minister.
Majhi said more than 41 lakh pucca houses had been completed in Odisha under various rural housing schemes since 2014-15. This included more than 5.66 lakh houses completed during the past two years. Under PMAY-G alone, 25.58 lakh houses have been completed so far, he said.
“A pucca house is not merely a structure of bricks, sand and cement. For poor families living in temporary shelters, it represents dignity, security and hope of a better future,” Majhi said. He added that the state was giving special attention to families living in disaster-prone regions, where housing quality is also linked to protection from extreme weather and local hazards.
The chief minister urged the Centre to approve another one lakh houses to cover all eligible beneficiaries in Odisha. Chouhan said all eligible beneficiaries would receive housing assistance and indicated that further allocations would be made in the future. He also said Odisha would be included in the Centre’s pilot anti-poverty programme, which would begin from Balangir.
The state’s rural housing coverage also includes targeted schemes. Majhi said 35,635 houses had been completed for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group families under PM-JANMAN against 41,075 sanctioned. Under Odisha’s Antyodaya Gruha Yojana, 1.47 lakh houses had been completed out of 2.25 lakh sanctioned. He announced that the state scheme would continue until 2029.
The state is offering completion-linked incentives to speed up construction. Beneficiaries who complete their houses within five months receive Rs 35,000, while those completing them within seven months receive Rs 20,000, Majhi said.
Chouhan also promised that every village in Odisha would eventually be connected by all-weather roads, linking the housing announcement to wider rural infrastructure access. Earlier in the day, Majhi inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 248 projects worth Rs 911 crore in Balangir. The projects include health facilities, water supply systems, irrigation works, anganwadi centres, school classrooms, roads and hostels.
The government’s next stated steps are to extend housing assistance to the newly approved beneficiaries, continue implementation of the existing allocations and expand the Antyodaya Gruha Yojana through 2029.
