Odisha to Get 5 Lakh PMAY-Gramin Houses, Chouhan Announces

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan used a state-level programme of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin at Balangir in Odisha on 14 November 2026 to announce an immediate grant of 5 lakh pucca houses for the state's poor families. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi was present. The Minister said the housing survey had now been done properly, that no poor family would be left in a mud hut, and that every eligible household would get a solid house in phases. He also laid the foundation stone of a new agriculture college at Balangir.

Houses that will also make power

The Minister said the Centre and the state will together subsidise solar panels on these houses, so that the electricity bill falls to zero and a family can earn by selling what it does not use. For farmers he described a plan under which solar panels would sit above a field while fruit and vegetables grow below, giving a double return. Names of eligible farmers left out of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi list have also been added.

Lakhpati Didi count in Odisha

Odisha has made 29 lakh women Lakhpati Didi, crossing a target of 27 lakh a full year ahead of schedule. The Minister credited the Subhadra Yojana, under which a woman receives ten thousand rupees a year, with lifting the confidence and standing of the state's women. Over the next five years, he said, banks will lend ten lakh crore rupees across the country to make more women lakhpati, and a loan will now be available to a woman starting a trade on her own, not only to a self-help group.

Money down to the panchayat

Under the Viksit Bharat-G Ram Ji scheme Odisha will receive about Rs 4,000 crore this year. Every panchayat in the state is to get Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 lakh a year, which over five years works out to as much as Rs 1 crore for a small panchayat and Rs 2 crore for a large one, to be spent on roads, drains, schools, panchayat buildings, farm approach roads and ponds for water conservation. In the fourth phase of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, 1,700 kilometres of roads have been sanctioned, after which the remaining villages are also to be linked by metalled roads.

Who was there

Deputy Chief Minister and Agriculture Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Minister Ravi Narayan Nayak, Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Mukesh Mahaling and Member of Parliament Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo attended, along with local legislators. The Minister said the Balangir agriculture college would be built into the country's finest with the help of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.