House is one of the basic needs of every citizen. To have a house to live, provides economic security and social prestige to a common man. The government had started 'Indira Awas Yojna' and ' Atal Awal Yojna' to provide housing facility to the poor and under-privileged families. Every such family may get a house to live, the State Government has started 'Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojna' from this year to provide housing facility to those poor families who belong to general category.
Under 'Indira Awas Yojna' and 'Atal Awas Yojna' enhancement has been made in housing grant to Rs. 75,000 from Rs. 48,500 and similar amount is being provided under 'Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojna'. A target of construction of 12,000 houses with the cost of Rs. 97 Crore has been fixed under various housing schemes for the current financial year.
Financial assistance of Rs. 75,000 is provided under 'Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojna' to BPL families of general categories for the construction of house. Under the scheme, 1923 houses would be constructed during this financial year for which a provision of Rs. 25 Crore has been made so that every poor family of general category could also have a house to live.
As many as 13,808 houses have been constructed under 'Indira Awas Yojna' by spending Rs. 108.37 Crore and 3363 houses were constructed under 'Rajiv Awas Yojna' by spending Rs. 33 Crore and needy and poor families were provided with housing facility. 1515 houses are being constructed this year by spending Rs. 19.70 Crore.
Under 'Rajiv Awas Yojna', 300 houses would be constructed in Krishna Nagar of Shimla town for which Rs. 33.99 Crore have been sanctioned from the Central Government and first installment of Rs. 10.67 Crore has already been received.
Under the first phase of 'Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna' (houses for all), 13 Uraban local bodies of the State viz: Shimla, Solan, Nahan, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Una, Mandi, Kullu, Dharamshala, Chamba, Parwanu, Baddi and Nalagarh have been included. Remaining 41 towns would be brought under the scheme in the second phase.
The work on construction of shelter homes for Urban houseless people in Hamirpur, Shimla, Nahan & Dharamshala has already been started. 10 Urban livelihood Centres have been established in 10 district Head Quarters of the State.
Families of scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and other backward classes were earlier provided with the housing subsidy Rs. 15000 for the renovation of first house which now has been increased to Rs. 25000. Similar amount is also provided under Rajiv Awas Yojna to the BPL families from amongst the general category for the renovation of house. Target of renovation of 1200 houses with an expenditure of Rs. 3 crore has been fixed for this year.
The State Government is committed to provide a house to live to all eligible poor people and to fulfill the needs 3 biswa of land in rural areas whereas 2 biswas in urban areas is being provided to the houseless families.
In order to ensure economic and social security to the poor families of general categories, the financial assistance is being provided under National Livelihood Mission. Under the Mission loans of Rs. 108.13 crore have been distributed amongst 13260 self help groups since the inception of the scheme (2013) and particularly the women folk is adopting self employment ventures and an improvement has been recorded in their income.