Maharashtra Lags Behind in Rural Housing: Over 27 Lakh PMAY-G Homes Remain Incomplete

Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2022 promise to provide permanent homes to every rural household, Maharashtra is still struggling to meet the target. Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G), more than 27 lakh homes in the state remain incomplete. The scheme, which began in 2016, aimed to offer housing security to the rural poor. Of the 40.82 lakh homes approved across Maharashtra, only 13.80 lakh have been finished. That leaves nearly 67% of the sanctioned houses still pending, raising serious questions about the program’s implementation at the state level.

The situation is particularly worrying in districts such as Yavatmal and Nanded, which are among the worst performers. In Yavatmal, out of 2.38 lakh approved homes, just 62,785 have been completed. Similarly, in Nanded, only 63,819 out of 2.75 lakh sanctioned homes have been built. These figures reveal massive delays, leaving over 1.75 lakh homes in Yavatmal and more than 2 lakh in Nanded incomplete. The central government has extended the PMAY-G scheme until 2028–29, adding two crore new homes to the agenda, but execution in Maharashtra remains disappointingly slow.

To improve targeting and reduce errors, the government has launched a new survey using a mobile application to identify eligible rural families who still lack housing. However, for many families, the hope of living in a concrete house remains unfulfilled. The issue has gone beyond simple numbers—it's now about broken promises and rising frustration in remote and tribal regions. The housing backlog not only highlights poor planning and coordination but also reveals systemic flaws that continue to deprive the most vulnerable populations of their basic right to shelter.

Several other districts also show worrying data. Beed, Parbhani, Buldhana, and Nashik each have over one lakh unfinished homes, reflecting a widespread crisis in rural housing infrastructure. These figures underline the scale of the problem, suggesting that incomplete construction is not limited to a few pockets but is instead affecting large parts of the state. In contrast, Nandurbar district has shown notable progress, completing 1.15 lakh out of 2.51 lakh approved homes, achieving a completion rate of 45%, the highest in the state. Still, much remains to be done to meet the goals of affordable and dignified rural housing.