Antyodaya Gruha Yojana (AGJ)

What is Antyodaya Gruha Yojana?

Antyodaya Gruha Yojana (the department's guidelines spell it Antyodaya Gruha Jojana, or AGJ) is a state plan rural housing scheme of the Government of Odisha, run by the Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water Department. Its stated aim is to give a pucca house to every rural family that is either houseless or living in a kutcha house, and to reward beneficiaries of any government rural housing scheme who finish their house quickly.

The guidelines were issued under department file PR-RH-BUD-0001-2024 and circulated in February 2025, with an order that the resolution be published in the Odisha Gazette. They describe AGJ as a new scheme to ensure shelter security for families left out of the ongoing housing schemes, victims of natural and man-made calamities, households displaced by development projects, households whose main earner is a person with disability, and Forest Rights Act beneficiaries.

Related schemes: People who look up Antyodaya Gruha Yojana (AGJ) often also check Mo Ghara Yojana, Bikashita Gaon Bikashita Odisha (BGBO), Award of Incentive for Marriage Between Persons with Benchmark Disabilities and Other Person, Odisha, ANMOL (ANM Online), Odisha and Ayushman Bharat in Odisha (Unified AB PM-JAY and Gopabandhu Jan Arogya Yojana). See also all Odisha government schemes.

AGJ also took over Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana (BPGY), the state's earlier rural housing scheme. The guidelines say ongoing BPGY works are covered under AGJ, and the funds still available under BPGY are credited to the AGJ state nodal account. The 2026-27 budget speech of the Chief Minister provides Rs 2,000 crore for Antyodaya Gruha Yojana, alongside PMAY-Gramin, PM-JANMAN and PMAY (Urban) 2.0, in a total housing outlay of Rs 5,160 crore.

The scheme has two components: construction of new houses, and incentives to beneficiaries for early completion.

How much does Antyodaya Gruha Yojana pay?

The unit cost for a new pucca house is Rs 1,20,000. The house must have a minimum carpet area of 25 square metres, including a hygienic cooking space and excluding the toilet. A pucca house, as the guidelines define it, has walls of brick or stone with cement bonding and an RCC roof, and must be able to last at least 30 years.

The money is paid in three instalments linked to construction progress:

All payments go by DBT from the state nodal account to the beneficiary's bank account. The government can revise both the unit cost and the instalments.

Early-completion incentive. A beneficiary who completes the house within 4 months of receiving the first instalment gets Rs 20,000. One who completes within 6 months gets Rs 10,000. This incentive is not limited to AGJ: beneficiaries of PMAY-Gramin, PM-JANMAN and any other government funded rural housing scheme in Odisha can also receive it.

Other support. The guidelines entitle a beneficiary building a new house to up to 90 person-days of unskilled wage employment in non-IAP districts and 95 in IAP districts under the rural employment guarantee. That scheme was MGNREGA when the guidelines were written; the VB-G RAM G Act replaced MGNREGA from 1 July 2026, so ask the Block how the wage days are now booked. The family can also take support under the rural sanitation, drinking water, rural electrification and Ujjwala schemes if eligible and not already availed. Where possible, the BDO builds houses in clusters with a CC road, street lights, drainage and a community sanitation complex from other schemes.

Who is eligible for Antyodaya Gruha Yojana?

A household must be houseless or living in a kutcha house in a rural area of Odisha and belong to one of these categories:

• Forest Rights Act, 2006 beneficiaries.
• Households whose main earning member is a person with disability of at least 40 percent.
• Lower income households that are eligible but left out of the ongoing government rural housing schemes.

A kutcha house is one where either the wall or the roof is kutcha: walls bonded with anything other than cement, or a roof of straw, bamboo, mud, grass, polythene, asbestos, GCI sheet, tile or any material other than RCC.

Households covered even if they had a house before. The following can get a new house notwithstanding an earlier allotment under a government housing scheme and even if they are living in a pucca house, as long as they do not fall under the other exclusions:

• Households whose house was fully or severely damaged by fire, flood, cyclone, earthquake, elephant menace, communal violence, LWE violence or a major law and order problem.
• Victims of river or sea inundation who need to be relocated.
• Households rehabilitated or relocated for government projects such as highways and irrigation projects.
• Households living in sanctuary or reserve forest areas who need to be relocated.

A family under the scheme means the spouse, dependent parents and children.

Who cannot apply for Antyodaya Gruha Yojana?

The guidelines exclude these households:

• Households already living in a pucca house (outside the calamity and relocation categories).
• Households with any member who is a regular government, PSU or statutory body employee, or who draws a monthly service pension from one.
• Households owning a motorised four-wheeler.
• Households owning mechanised three or four-wheeler agricultural equipment.
• Households with a non-agricultural enterprise registered with the government.
• Households with any member earning more than Rs 15,000 a month.
• Households owning 2.5 acres or more of irrigated land, or 5 acres or more of unirrigated land.
• Households that have already received housing assistance under another government rural housing scheme.
• Families relocated for a government project who own a pucca house elsewhere.

Urban households are outside the scheme, because AGJ is implemented through the Panchayat Samitis.

How to apply for Antyodaya Gruha Yojana

Antyodaya Gruha Yojana has no online application form. Houses are sanctioned after the Block identifies eligible households. The process in the guidelines runs like this:

1. Approach the Gram Panchayat and the Block office. Tell the Block Development Officer (BDO) which category you fall in, for example a calamity victim, a household with a disabled main earner, an FRA title holder or a family left out of PMAY-Gramin.
2. Produce your supporting certificates. The BDO cross-checks the documents of the concerned authority for calamity victims, disability and other categories.
3. Get your existing house geo-tagged. A photograph of your present house is geo-tagged and uploaded on the RH portal through the Ama Ghara mobile app before sanction.
4. Wait for the district proposal and sanction. The BDO enters your details on the RH portal and sends the proposal to the Collector. The Collector sends the scrutinised list to the Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water Department, which obtains the Chief Minister's order and allots targets to districts and blocks.
5. Receive the online work order. The BDO sanctions the house and issues the work order on the RH portal. The first instalment of Rs 40,000 is released with it.
6. Build the house yourself. No contractor may be engaged. A block official is tagged to help you, geo-tags each stage, and the BDO generates the fund transfer order for the next instalment.
7. Paint the scheme logo. After completion, paint the AGJ logo on the front wall of the house.

If you are landless, the Revenue authorities allot a house site on priority. The BDO and Tahasildar meet on the first Saturday of every month to settle house site cases. Families living on valuable government land, such as land beside a National Highway, are not sanctioned a house until they are given a site.

Senior citizens, infirm or destitute persons, and persons with disabilities who cannot supervise construction can ask in writing for the house to be built departmentally.

Whose name is the house in?

The house is sanctioned preferably in the name of the woman head of the household. If the household is not headed by a woman, it can be in the joint names of husband and wife; if there is no female spouse, in the name of the male head.

How is the scheme monitored?

The District Collector is responsible for implementation. The CDO-cum-EO of the Zilla Parishad is responsible at district level and the BDO at block level for timely completion and quality. BDOs inspect at least 10 percent of houses under construction, district level officers at least 1 percent, and the Programme Manager (RH) 10 percent of houses in the district. The RH portal shows the list of beneficiaries and physical and financial progress block-wise for public view, and the Odisha Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency (OSSAAT) conducts social audits.

Where to complain

Start with the Gram Panchayat and the BDO, who sanctions the house and releases each instalment. Escalate to the CDO-cum-EO, Zilla Parishad and the District Collector. Progress can be checked on the RH portal at rh.odisha.gov.in, which lists Antyodaya Gruha Jojana among its schemes along with PMAY-Gramin, PM-JANMAN, Pucca Ghar Yojana (Mining) and Nirman Shramik Pucca Ghar Yojana. The Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water Department in Bhubaneswar is the administrative department and can issue clarifications on the guidelines.