evidence: The Narendra Modi government has extended the housing scheme for rural poor or the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (Gramin), one of the most important welfare programmes to fight multi-dimensional poverty, for another five years to construct an additional 20 million houses, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday. Presenting the Union’s interim budget for 2024-25 fiscal year, the minister cited increased demand for the decision. The government has already sanctioned 29.4 million houses for rural poor against a target of 29.5 million dwelling units by 2024. Of the sanctioned, 25.5 million have been constructed. Read here: PMAY-G scheme to continue for 5 years with target to build 20m more houses "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," finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her interim budget on Thursday.