Govt clears 20 lakh affordable units

In a bid to provide housing units to the needy, the central government has recently cleared the construction of over 20 lakh affordable houses for urban poor across 4,720 cities and towns under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (Urban) scheme launched two years ago, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, claiming that the scale of housing activity has picked up in the three years of the current government. He said this while participating in a foundation laying ceremony for 1,09,000 houses under the Yojna in Andhra Pradesh's Vijaywada town. The significance of this scale of housing activity is marked by the fact that the previous UPA regime had approved the construction of only 13,82,768, houses during its 10-year rule. The Central government has done all that it could do in the form of putting in place an enabling ecosystem and will fulfill its commitment of central assistance, he said.