In her last Budget 2024 announcement before the Lok Sabha elections, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government would launch a housing scheme for the middle class, schemes to help slum dwellers as well as those living on rent.
She also said the government will give 2 crore more houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna - Gramin. "We are close to achieving the target of 3 crore under the rural housing scheme. Two crore more would be constructed in the next five years," said Sitharaman.
Sushil Mohta, President, CREDAI West Bengal and Chairman, Merlin Group, said, "Under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the announcement to build the additional 2 crore rural houses in the next 5 years is encouraging. These will support the housing market to grow. This will not only create lot of job opportunities for those in housing and construction industry but will also provide a lot of scopes on the ancillary industries like cement, paint etc."
On the new housing scheme for the middle class, the FM said the government will launch a housing scheme for deserving middle class to buy or build their own homes. The government will also launch schemes to help slum dwellers, and people living on rent and enable them to buy and build their own houses, Sitharaman said.
Sitharaman again took a digital tablet wrapped in a traditional 'bahi-khata' style pouch as she presented the interim Budget 2024-25 in a paperless format just like the previous three years.
Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman Finance Minister, had in July 2019 ditched the colonial legacy of a Budget briefcase for the traditional 'bahi-khata' to carry Union Budget papers.
She used the same in the following year, and in a pandemic-hit 2021, she swapped traditional papers with a digital tablet for carrying her speech and other Budget documents.
Her Budget for the fiscal beginning April 2024 (FY2024-24) is the Modi government's 12th straight Budget since 2014 (including one interim Budget presented ahead of general elections in 2019).
She was appointed as the finance minister when Narendra Modi swept to power again in the 2019 election and presented her maiden Budget on July 5, 2019. The Budget for 2024-25 is Sitharaman's sixth straight Budget.
With inputs from PTI
(Edited by : Amrita)
First Published: Feb 1, 2024 11:58 AM IST
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