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 Ahead of the 2024 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the Odisha government on Monday announced a new rural housing scheme 'Mo Ghara'.

Approximately 4 lakh people will be covered under the new scheme for which the government will bear Rs 2150 crore over a period of two years.

On the occasion of completion of the fourth year of the fifth term of his government, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday chaired his cabinet meeting, in which 18 important proposals including the 'Mo Ghara' housing scheme were approved.

State Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Minister Pradip Kumar Amat said the cabinet has approved the new housing scheme called 'Mo Ghara' (my home) to provide financial assistance to meet the aspirations of the lower and lower middle-income households of rural Odisha.

The scheme will cover all such families who were left out in the existing housing schemes due to stringent eligibility criteria or due to insufficient allocation and also those who had received housing assistance of smaller amounts in the past and now want to upgrade or expand their houses, he said.

This is a credit linked housing scheme with capital subsidy which is fully funded from the state budget. This scheme aims at construction/up-gradation and completion of houses, Amat said.

Under the scheme, a beneficiary can avail housing loan up to Rs 3 lakh which can be repaid in 10 years excluding 1 year moratorium period in easy installments. They can opt for one of the four slabs of the loan amount - Rs 1 lakh, Rs 1.5 lakh, Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3 lakh, he pointed out.

For loan amounts of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 1.50 lakh, Rs 2/3 lakh, the state government will provide subsidies of Rs 30,000, Rs 45,000, and Rs 60,000, respectively. However, the family headed by SC/ST and PwD, will get an additional subsidy of Rs 10,000.

In order to further reduce the financial burden for the beneficiaries, the registration fee and stamp duties required during mortgage of title deed have been waived off by the state government, Amat said.

Further, he said, the legal consultation fee is also standardised to Rs 1000 maximum, which the state government will reimburse to the banks.

A dedicated web portal - https://rhodisha.gov.in/moghara will be launched for filing of online applications, monitoring and implementation of the scheme. The eligible people can submit their applications through this portal from June 16, 2023, the minister added.

The cabinet has approved the proposal for transformation of Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Burla, with an outlay of Rs 2000 crore, said chief secretary P.K. Jena.

The state government has decided to spend Rs 364.40 crore in three years (2022-23 to 2024-25) for implementation of the state plan scheme 'Sustainable Harnessing of Ground Water in Water Deficit Areas'.

The government has decided to establish Odisha University of Health Sciences with an expenditure of Rs 330.17 crore, Jena said.

The state cabinet has also approved a tender worth Rs 379.17 crore for execution of two rural drinking water supply projects in Gajapati district to benefit more than 1.31 lakh residents of 346 villages.

It also cleared a tender of Rs 1509.91 crore for execution of a single mega drinking water supply project in Chief Minister's home district Ganjam while another two tenders of Rs 423 crore approved for five drinking water projects to be undertaken in Balangir district. All the drinking water projects will be completed in two years.

Besides, the cabinet also approved a proposal to make Hindi movie 'Zwigato' and recently released Odia movie 'Delivery Boy' tax-free till June 30, 2023.