Govt to launch scheme for middle-class housing: Sitharaman

New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that the government will launch a scheme to help deserving sections of the middle class living in rented houses, slums, chawls and unauthorised colonies to buy or build their own houses.

“Despite the challenges due to COVID, implementation of the scheme continued and the government is close to achieving the target of three crore houses,” she said while presenting the Interim Budget in Lok Sabha.

She said that two crore more houses will be taken up in the next five years to meet the requirement arising from increase in the number of families.

Sitharaman said that the government is working with an approach to development that is all-round, all-pervasive and all-inclusive to make India a (developed) ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.