Centre pre-approves 1 lakh rural houses for Bengal under PMAY before survey completion, says Suvendu Adhikari

PTI, July 14, 2026, Kolkata : The Centre has pre-approved the construction of one lakh rural houses in West Bengal under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana even before the completion of survey work and the physical verification process, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced on Tuesday.

The state has identified and approved 2.56 crore job card holders for 125 days of guaranteed work under the VB-GRAM G scheme and has received the Centre's in-principle nod to process and approve additional applications, he added.

The announcements were made following a high-level meeting between Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and the state government, represented by Adhikari, Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Dilip Ghosh, ministers of other departments, and senior officials of the state and the Centre at the secretariat.

"The survey work for the rural housing scheme in Bengal is being carried out rapidly and will be followed by a mandatory physical verification process. We have pre-approved the construction of one lakh homes so that, once the due diligence process gets completed, no time is lost in initiating the building of houses," Chauhan said.

The approvals were made in addition to the previously allotted Rs 1,000 crore for laying 2,400 km of rural roads in the state under the PM Gram Sadak Yojana and Rs 700 crore for MNREGA, Adhikari said.

"In accordance with the promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we had pledged to give jobs in hand, food in belly and a roof above the heads of the economically marginalised people.

"Thanks to the guidelines we received from the Union Agriculture Minister at the meeting today, we have taken a step forward to fulfil at least two of those three promises," the Chief Minister said.

Adhikari stated that the survey and verification deadline for the rural housing scheme has been extended from July 20 to August 15 in the wake of monsoon-related hurdles.

Chauhan said the Rural Welfare Ministry has sanctioned Rs 8,508 crore for the development of West Bengal's villages for nine months till March 31, 2027, the total outlay for which will be over Rs 12,064 crore, with contribution from the state government.

"My heart ached, and my soul wept when I visited Bengal during the previous regime, whose non-cooperation with the Centre had deprived the people of sanctioned benefits worth Rs 82,492 crore, the work for which had begun long before but never got completed.

"I am happy that under the Suvendu Adhikari government, those obstacles have now been removed and Bengal's development process can now be fast-tracked," the Union Minister said.

Chauhan added that a collaborative effort from experts of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and state universities was being attempted to prepare an agricultural road map for the state, the first presentation of which was made at Tuesday's meeting.

"The project will lay out suggestions for choice of crops and their improved yield, taking into consideration the state's agro-climatic condition, nature of soil and other factors," he said.

"An MoU was signed to make Bengal the hub of seed development in the whole of eastern India," Chauhan said, while highlighting that seeds of two of the state's staple crops — jute and potato — are being brought from outside.

He said an awareness campaign, with assistance from NABARD and banks, will soon be launched in rural Bengal for Kisan Credit Card applications, which currently has 12 lakh holders.

Adhikari announced that four districts of Bengal — Darjeeling, Alipurduar, Jhargram and Purulia — have been brought under the Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana, an umbrella agricultural mission designed to transform 100 underperforming districts in India.

"We now have the Centre's approval for setting up four agricultural training and research units across the state, including one in Chinsurah for rice and another in Malda for mangoes, and an upfront allocation of Rs 100 crore for them," the Chief Minister added.