Bhubaneswar, Aug. 12: Chidananda Jena, 58, a pani puri seller, has reasons to cheer for - that too, after spending almost three decades in a thatched house at Jharna Sahi in the city.

For ages, Jena has been selling pani puri at Unit-I market to make ends meet for his family. Nowadays, his daily business is about Rs 600. "I am a poor man with three other family members to take care of. For years, I have applied for many schemes, but am yet to get any benefits," said Jena.

However, his wait for a new or revamped house seems to be over with the city administration planning to open a facilitation centre to help the urban poor avail themselves of the options for affordable housing and bank loans. "I hope the new scheme would help me construct my own house," he said.

The centre will be opened in collaboration with the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and the Indian Housing Federation. They are also conducting special drives to sensitise citizens on the beneficiary-led construction under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to ease the service delivery system for the needy people.

According to the corporation's records, the city has about 3.1 lakh people tagged as urban poor, who are living in about 80 thousands households. Anyone, who earns less than 18,000 per month, comes under the economically-weaker section category.

The beneficiary-led construction is a component of the policy, which provides assistance to those belonging to the economically-weaker section of the society to either construct new houses or enhance or remodel the existing ones. Recently, the civic body has approved applications of 614 beneficiaries during the special drive.

"Our aim is to cover more beneficiaries, who are not able to take advantage of other components of the mission. Such families can also get central assistance of Rs 1.50 lakh for construction of new houses or enhancement of the existing houses under the scheme," said a senior civic official.

"The federation officials gave us the idea of opening a felicitation centre to help beneficiaries get the scheme with ease. We will put the proposal before the council and identify a suitable location for it," he said.

The corporation has come up with the centre plan after discovering a considerable gap between the actual demand for the houses and the available beneficiaries. The number of applications is less than the available number of beneficiaries. This, the authorities feel, is because of the lack of awareness about the scheme.

The officials have also discovered that the delayed mutation proceedings because of the settlement operations also pose a hurdle in the approval process. The settlement operation is the paper work done at the tehsil office, while mutation is the process of transferring ownership of land.

"The state government is committed to provide houses to the urban poor by 2030. Many may not be aware of the beneficiary-led construction. We are trying to sensitise the eligible families about it. So far, we have been successful through our drives. Now, a felicitation centre will further add more beneficiaries in the scheme," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.