Govt approves 3 cr rural, urban houses in first Cabinet meeting

In its first Cabinet meeting held today, Modi 3.0 announced assistance for construction of 3 crore rural and urban households under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), which has helped construct 4.21 crore houses for the poor till date since its launch in 2015-16.

"Government of India is implementing Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana since 2015-16 to provide assistance to the eligible rural and urban households for construction of houses with basic amenities. Under PMAY, total 4.21 Crore houses have been completed for the eligible poor families under the housing schemes in the last 10 years," said a government release on the Cabinet decision.

"It has been decided in the Cabinet meeting today to provide assistance to 3 crore additional rural and urban households for the construction of houses, to meet the housing requirements arising out of the increase in the number of eligible families," the release added.

"All the houses constructed under PMAY are provided the other basic amenities such as household toilets, LPG connection, electricity connection, functional household tap connection etc. through convergence with other schemes of central government and state governments," the release added.

PMAY is one of the flagship schemes of the NDA government, envisaged by Prime Minister Modi in the NDA-I.

Earlier in the day, after being sworn in as Prime Minister for the 3rd time, PM Narendra Modi signed his first file authorising release of 17th instalment of PM Kisan Nidhi. "This will benefit 9.3 crore farmers and distribute around Rs 20,000 crores," said a release from the PMO.

After signing the file, PM Modi said “Ours is a Government fully committed to Kisan Kalyan. It is therefore fitting that the first file signed on taking charge is related to farmer welfare. We want to keep working even more for the farmers and the agriculture sector in the times to come.”

Immediately after the Cabinet meeting, the government also announced the ministerial portfolios.