Increase amount for PM-Awas to Rs 4 lakh a household: LS member Nilesh Lanke

New Delhi, Aug 8 (PTI) A strong demand was made in Lok Sabha for increasing the amount disbursed under housing scheme PM-Awas Yojana to Rs 4 lakh from the existing Rs 1.6 lakh.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, NCP-SP member Nilesh Lanke said the amounts disbursed under the PM-Awas initiative were inadequate for constructing a house in a district such as Ahmednagar in Maharashtra.

"Some changes are required under the PM-Awas scheme, given rising inflation and shrinking incomes in rural areas," said Lanke, who represents Ahmednagar in the Lower House of Parliament.

He said a PM-Awas beneficiary gets Rs 1.2 lakh for building a house, Rs 12,000 for constructing a toilet and Rs 26,000-to-Rs 28,000 and MGNREGA expenses towards labour costs.

BJP member Anurag Thakur wanted the Himachal Pradesh government to contribute its share to railway projects in the hill state.

He claimed that the Congress had ignored the development of Himachal Pradesh and had not paid its share of funds for various railway projects, despite the central government allocating Rs 2,700 crore to the state.

BJP member Ganesh Singh demanded extension of postal ballots for voting in elections to young students, who leave their home towns for pursuing studies in different cities and find it difficult to travel for exercising their franchise.

Singh, who represents Satna in the Lok Sabha, said that allowing students and youth, migrating to other cities for work, to cast their vote through online polling or postal ballots would also address the issue of low turnout on election day.

Samajwadi Party member Harendra Singh Malik wanted the government to act against unscrupulous elements who were targeting religious places of worship in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar, declaring it as enemy property and diverting the land for commercial use.

BJP member Anup Dhotre wanted the government to start a Vande Bharat Express train between Mumbai and Nagpur.

Congress member V K Sreekandan wanted the government to declare the landslides in Wayanad as a national disaster and pay compensation to everyone who suffered in the tragedy.

CPI(M) member Amra Ram from Sikar raised the issue of poor quality cucumber seeds supplied by a company based in the Netherlands to farmers in parts of Rajasthan at exorbitant prices.

He wanted the government to take action against the company in the Netherlands and ensure proper compensation to the farmers.

Congress member Porika Balram Naik wanted the government to include the Lambadi language used by the 16 crore-strong Banjara community in the Constitution's eighth schedule.

Shiv Sena-UBT member Omprakash RajeNimbalkar wanted the government to do away with the requirement of providing non-agricultural land as collateral for educational loans.

Nimbalkar said the daughter of a woman, who does household chores to earn a living, was selected in the NEET exams but could not secure an educational loan to fund her higher studies.

Sanjay Deshmukh of the Shive Sena-UBT flagged the rising incidents of crime in his constituency of Yavatmal.

Congress member Murari Lal Meena wanted the government to build flyovers at various road intersections with highways passing through his Dausa constituency where several accidents were reported.

BJP member Manju Sharma wanted the government to develop a IT hub in her parliamentary constituency of Jaipur to create jobs in the state.

MDMK member Durai Vaiko raised the issue of attacks on Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy. PTI SKU SKU ANB ANB