Assam Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass on Saturday said that the state government will start the construction work of one lakh Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY) houses from September 17 this year.

Dass said, “There are 16 lakh beneficiaries in the state and construction works of 13 lakh PMAY houses are going on. We have now decided to construct 1 lakh more houses in the state. On September 17, the public representatives of the state such as the ministers, MPs, MLAs and Panchayat members will flag off the construction works of 1 lakh PMAY houses across the state.”

“We have prepared the DPR (a construction company) to construct 3007 Amrit Sarovar in Assam. We will start construction works of 1000 Amrit Sarovar in the state from September 17,” he added.

The minister further said that the state government has also decided to give one one-time financial aid of Rs. 25,000 each to 12000 Widow beneficiaries on September 17.

To this he said, "There are 1.39 lakh widow beneficiaries in the state who are currently getting Rs 300 as Widow pension per month. Out of them, the state government will provide one-time financial aid of Rs 25,000 to each of 12000 widow beneficiaries.”

Dass said that in the last 15 months of the current state government led by Himanta Biswa Sarma, the government has completed around 2.50 lakh houses.