New Delhi (PTI): Wooing the middle class ahead of the general elections, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a scheme to help those living in rented accommodations or slums to acquire a house.

Parallely, she also announced building 2 crore more houses for the rural poor in the next five years under the continuing PM Awas Yojana (Grameen).

Presenting a vote on account for 2024-25, also known as interim budget for the period till the new government comes into office after general elections, she said the Modi government in the last 10 years has endeavoured to provide each a house, water, electricity, cooking gas and bank account as part of the inclusive development.

"Our government will launch a scheme to help deserving sections of the middle class 'living in rented houses, or slums, or chawls and unauthorized colonies' to buy or build their own houses," Sitharaman said.

The finance minister highlighted that the implementation of the PM Awas Yojana (Grameen) continued despite the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Despite the challenges due to COVID, implementation of PM Awas Yojana (Grameen) continued and we are close to achieving the target of three crore houses. 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," she said.

In order to achieve the target of 'Housing for All' in rural areas, the Ministry of Rural Development is implementing Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G) with effect from 1st April 2016 to provide assistance to eligible rural households.

The overall target is to construct 2.95 crore pucca houses with basic amenities by March 2024.

The central assistance under PMAY-G is released directly to the State/UT considering the State/UT as a unit. Further release of these funds to beneficiaries in various Districts/Blocks/GPs is done by the respective State Government/UT Administration.

"The amount of Central Share of funds released to the States/UTs for construction of houses under PMAY-G during the last five years, which is from the financial year 2018-19 to 2022-23 was around Rs 1,60,853.38 crore," according to an official statement in December.

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Belthangady: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the Dharmasthala mass burial case has taken the prime witness and complainant into the dense forest area near the Netravati bathing ghat in Dharmasthala to conduct a detailed spot inspection.

Under tight police security, the witness was brought to the bathing ghat area around noon. He initially pointed out a specific location near the ghat, following which the officers led him into the thick forest nearby for further verification.

The inspection inside the forest has been going on for over an hour. The witness is believed to have buried multiple bodies in this region, and SIT officers are now working to identify and mark these suspected sites.

Sources say that the forest area inspection may continue for several more hours. Based on the witness's statements and identification of the locations, the police are marking the spots. Officials have indicated that this is the preliminary phase of the process, focusing on identifying potential burial sites. In the next phase, excavation and recovery of the bodies are likely to begin.