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In a shift from the existing practice for government housing projects in Kerala, the United Democratic Front (UDF) government is going ahead with the Union government’s stipulation for the beneficiaries for the second phase of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-Urban) to pay 25% of the scheme amount. Currently, no beneficiary of any housing scheme in Kerala has to pay beneficiary share.
The change is expected to be a burden for those dreaming of building a house with government aid. The State government has also decided to agree to the Centre’s requirement to display an emblem in front of houses built under PMAY, despite stiff resistance from the Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF).
After the launch of the LIFE housing project by the LDF government in 2016, the funding for all housing schemes in the State was made uniform at ₹4 lakh, to make it equal to the LIFE scheme amount of ₹4 lakh.
As part of the original PMAY project envisaged by the Union government, each beneficiary would receive ₹1.5 lakh from the Central government, the State and the local body together would contribute ₹1 lakh, and the beneficiary share was ₹50,000. However, in Kerala, the beneficiaries used to get ₹4 lakh after the launch of the LIFE project.
The requirement for beneficiary share which was part of the PMAY guidelines was done away with after the LIFE project was launched. Some of the bigger urban local bodies even returned the beneficiary share paid by PMAY beneficiaries in the early stages of implementation of the project before it was clubbed with the LIFE scheme. For instance, in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, the beneficiary share was returned to 1,500 PMAY beneficiaries in 2019.
Under PMAY-U 2.0, the Union government has not raised its share, keeping it constant at ₹1.5 lakh. The State government will provide ₹1 lakh and the local body will pay ₹50,000. The remaining amount will have to be found by the municipality and the beneficiary. The beneficiary share is likely to go up to ₹1 lakh considering the scheme amount in the State.
The Kerala Cabinet on Thursday (August 13, 2026) decided to proceed with signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) required for implementing the PMAY-U 2.0. As per a statement from the office of Minister for Local Self-Government K.M. Shaji, the State decided to ink the MoU to avoid losing out on ₹450 crore of Central share for the scheme. As per the government’s estimates, around 30,000 beneficiaries will receive houses through the second edition of the scheme in Kerala.
Row over logo display
The display of logos in front of the houses built under the scheme is also likely to lead to Opposition protests in the coming days. When Mr. Shaji recently said that the State government was not opposed to the Union government’s insistence on logo in front of the houses, Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan had said display of logo “conveys a message to those who are living there that the house does not belong to them and questions the self-respect of the beneficiaries.”
Logos are not displayed in LIFE, PMAY or any other housing schemes in Kerala, although such practices are prevalent in some north Indian States.
Published – August 14, 2026 01:13 pm IST
