PMAY-Urban 2.0 Sanctions Reach 18.77 Lakh Houses at 9th CSMC

The correct answer is 18.77 lakh. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs says that is the total number of houses approved under the second phase of the mission after the ninth meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee, and that cumulative sanctions are now nearing the twenty lakh mark. Option B is the closest trap, since that is the number of these houses allotted to women, which works out to ninety two per cent of the total. Option A is wrong because that figure belongs to the houses sanctioned for OBC beneficiaries. Option D is wrong because it is the combined record of the earlier phase and the present one taken together, of which more than one crore houses have already been completed and handed over. Read such questions carefully for the phrase under PMAY-U 2.0, which fixes which of the four numbers is being asked for.

The correct answer is Satendra Singh, Secretary, Department of Urban Development. The release says the meeting was held under his chairmanship in New Delhi, and that it was he who told the states the committee would meet in the second week of every month and asked them to submit duly approved projects by the end of each month. Option C is wrong, though the officer named did attend: he is the Joint Secretary and Mission Director for Housing for All, not the chair. Option A is wrong because no minister is recorded as presiding over this meeting; the committee is an official body of the Ministry. Option D is wrong because no such role appears in the release. Questions on sanctioning committees usually turn on who chairs them, so tie the post of Secretary, Department of Urban Development, to the CSMC.

The correct answer is up to Rs 9 lakh. The release states that the scheme caters to the housing needs of urban EWS, LIG and MIG families having an annual household income up to that level, and that it helps them move from kutcha, inadequate or rented accommodation into pucca homes. Options A and B are wrong because neither figure is given as the ceiling anywhere in the release, even though the lower income categories the scheme serves are often associated with such thresholds in general discussion. Option D is wrong as well and no such limit appears. Along with the ceiling, remember the four routes the scheme offers: building one's own pucca house, buying a house in a project built under the scheme, affordable rental housing, and an interest subsidy on an eligible housing loan.