AP gets barely 0.6% of national target but accounts for only 0.29% of completed houses; decade-long record raises questions over three governments, four leaders and concerned departments
(AP News- Amaravati)
Andhra Pradesh has turned a relatively small share of the national rural housing programme into an even smaller share of completed houses, completing only 90,601 of 2,46,929 houses sanctioned under PMAY-G since April 2016.
The State’s 36.7% completion rate is less than half the national rate of 76.59%. While Andhra Pradesh accounts for only about 0.60% of the Ministry of Rural Development’s total PMAY-G target of 4,09,23,054 houses, its completed houses account for just 0.29% of the national total of 3,13,43,137 completed houses.
The contrast is stark. Andhra Pradesh’s share of the national target is tiny. Its share of completed houses is smaller still. After more than a decade of PMAY-G implementation, 1,56,328 (63.3%) sanctioned houses in the State remain incomplete.
The district-wise figures were furnished in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The data cover PMAY-G implementation since April 1, 2016, and show that all 90,601 houses classified as completed have also been reported as occupied.
The comparison leaves little room for an allocation-based explanation. Andhra Pradesh’s programme is small in the national context, yet the State has converted only about one in every three sanctioned houses into a completed dwelling, compared with more than three out of four nationally.
A record spanning three governments
The poor completion record cannot be pinned on a single administration. The PMAY-G period covered by the data spans three State governments — the previous Chandrababu Naidu government during 2014-19, the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government and the present Chandrababu Naidu government.
It also covers the political leadership and concerned departments across these administrations. The BJP was a political partner in two of these governments, making the record a matter of wider political accountability rather than something that can simply be attributed to one party or one Chief Minister.
The district-wise figures offer a further political dimension.
CM’s Chittoor: high percentage, but tiny allocation
Chittoor, the home district of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, has the highest completion rate in the State at 77.5%. But the number behind that percentage is strikingly small.
Only 316 houses were sanctioned, of which 245 were completed and 71 remain pending. Chittoor therefore accounts for just about 0.13% of all PMAY-G houses sanctioned in Andhra Pradesh.
The 77.5% completion rate should consequently not be used as a like-for-like indicator of performance against districts that received thousands of sanctions. The absolute programme size in Chittoor is simply too small.
Pawan’s Kakinada: barely above State average
Kakinada district, which includes Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan’s Pithapuram Assembly constituency, has a much larger programme but a far less impressive completion record.
Of 4,726 sanctioned houses, only 1,792 have been completed, leaving 2,934 pending. Its completion rate of 37.9% is only 1.2 percentage points above the Andhra Pradesh average of 36.7%.
Lokesh’s Guntur: below the State average
Guntur district, which includes Nara Lokesh’s Mangalagiri constituency, has performed below the State average.
The district received 7,886 sanctions but completed only 2,622 houses. As many as 5,264 houses remain incomplete, resulting in a completion rate of just 33.2%.
Jagan’s YSR district: less than one-fourth completed
The weakest record among these politically significant districts is in Y.S.R. district, associated with former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s political stronghold.
Of 3,925 houses sanctioned, only 944 have been completed, leaving 2,981 incomplete. The completion rate is just 24.1%, more than 12 percentage points below the State average and less than one-third of the national rate.
The backlog is not confined to political districts
The State-wide problem is much broader. Bapatla has the largest backlog, with 14,787 houses yet to be completed after 4,538 completions out of 19,325 sanctions.
Eluru has 11,525 pending houses, Palnadu 10,739, Nandyal 10,409, and several other districts have thousands of sanctioned houses still incomplete.
Some districts have performed substantially better. Vizianagaram has completed 2,360 of 3,129 sanctioned houses, while West Godavari has completed 2,761 of 3,840. But these performances do not change the State-wide outcome: nearly two-thirds of all houses sanctioned in Andhra Pradesh remain incomplete.
‘State housing’ does not explain away PMAY-G underperformance
Andhra Pradesh has its own State-specific housing programme. But the existence of a State programme does not make PMAY-G irrelevant.
The State can pursue its own housing commitments while simultaneously maximising the benefits available under a national scheme in which Central funds can be utilised for rural housing. For a State facing persistent fiscal pressures, failing to convert sanctioned PMAY-G houses into completed homes means not only leaving eligible rural families waiting but also failing to fully leverage an available source of Central assistance.
The question, therefore, is not whether Andhra Pradesh should have its own housing programme. It is whether the State can afford to underperform in a Centrally supported national scheme while pursuing a parallel State programme.
