Modi Budget 2.0: Hardeep Singh Puri to lay roadmap for Centre's affordable housing scheme

How will Modi government deliver on its promises of providing pucca houses to all by the year 2022? In a one-on-one session at News Nation's exclusive 'Modi 2.0 Budget' Sammelan, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday will lay the roadmap for the Centre's affordable housing for the economically poor category. The Sammelan comes a day after the Centre unveiled its full time Budget for the financial year 2019-20.

In its Budget for the current fiscal year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pegged the budgetary provisions for the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry at Rs 48,000 crore, a hike of nearly 12 per cent from 2018-19. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), an ambitious programme of the Modi government, has been given Rs 6,853.26 crore as against Rs 6,505 crore in 2018-19.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has been given Rs 414.70 crore grant as against Rs 50 crore in 2018-19. The government has set aside Rs 19,152 crore for the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) as against the previous financial year's budgetary allocation of Rs 15,600 crore.

READ | Modi Budget 2.0: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari to discuss govt's strategy on building infrastructure

The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme, which aims at ensuring robust sewage networks, water supply and other infrastructure to improve the quality of life in urban areas, has been given Rs 7,300 crore. The allocation was Rs 6,400 crore in 2018-19.

The Smart Cities Mission, under which the government has selected 100 cities, has been granted Rs 6,450 crore as against Rs 6,169 crore in the 2018-19 financial year. Allocation to another flagship programme of the government, Swachh Bharat Mission, has been increased to Rs 2,650 crore from Rs 2,500 crore in the previous financial year.

Who is Hardeep Singh Puri?

In May 2019, Puri took charge as the Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs and Civil Aviation and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry. Puri, a 1974 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, was the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013.

READ | Modi Budget 2.0: From employment to farmers - Anurag Thakur, MoS for Finance, on new roadmap

Puri, the current Assistant Secretary-General at United Nations, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in January 2014, expressing an admiration for the party's approach to national security.