New Delhi, Mar 21 (IANS): A Parliamentary panel has recommended that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs conduct an impact assessment study of the housing scheme to find out the ground realities including its benefits, gaps and shortcomings.

Since PMAY-U was a demand driven scheme so the Committee feel that there are chances that some homeless people who did not fulfil the eligibility conditions could not avail the benefits, said the report of the Standing Committee on Housing & Urban Affairs (2022-23) on "Evaluation of implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (Urban)".

"The Committee, therefore, recommended the Ministry to conduct an impact assessment study of the scheme to find out the ground realities, i.e., its benefits, gaps and shortcomings and thereafter, based on impact assessment study may formulate another such scheme to benefit the urban poor to achieve the Government of India's objective of 'Housing for All'," said the report.

It observed that ISSR vertical ought to be the most important vertical of PMAY-U because the real challenge of 'decent housing' is for 'landless' urban slums. "However, despite provision in the scheme, the in-situ development of slums on Central government land could not happen. The Committee, therefore, suggested the Ministry to direct the states/UTs to provide details of slum settlements on Central government agencies' land and based on the information so received, the Ministry should intervene and initiate trilateral talks involving Central government agencies and states/UTs to implement the ISSR vertical on the Central government agencies' land as envisaged in the Mission guidelines," said the report.

The Committee recommended the Ministry to suggest the state governments ensure that beneficiaries are not left out because of lack of financial capacity to pay one's share and employ all means to extend financial assistance to such beneficiaries and to explore the viability of exempting projects under AHP/BLC vertical of PMAY-U from GST so that construction cost is reduced and thereby making it affordable for intended beneficiaries.

The Ministry has told the Committee that identification of beneficiary is not a pre-requisite for the first installment because in case of apartments, many times beneficiaries come later. However, the Committee opined that identification of beneficiaries for whom the houses are constructed should be a prior construction exercise and from the initiation of the project, the beneficiary should be involved as any other stakeholder and his concerns or feedback about the project should be acknowledged and acted upon throughout to avoid later 'un-occupancy', said the report.