From 2% Home Loans to Mukhyamantri Awas Yojana: Where Did BJP’s Housing Promise Go?
Four years after promising “good quality housing for all Goans” through 2% loans for women, 4% for men and residential plots, the Sawant government is now presenting a new housing model — but where is the promise that took the BJP to the polls in 2022?
8/18/20265 min read
Election seasons in Goa have a predictable rhythm. Manifestos are rolled out, ambitious promises are made, foundation stones are laid and governments return to voters with fresh schemes carrying fresh names.
Housing appears to be following that familiar cycle.
In February 2022, the BJP went before Goans with a particularly specific housing commitment. Under Sankalp 16 of its Goa Sankalp Patra 2022, the party promised:
“We shall provide good quality housing for all Goans in the next five years by providing home loans for deserving families at an interest rate of 2% for women and 4% for men and developing & providing residential plots.”
This was not a vague promise to “look into” affordable housing. It specified the mechanism: 2% home loans for women, 4% for men and residential plots, with a clear five-year deadline.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, while unveiling the manifesto, said the BJP was committed to its promises and had claimed that 80% of assurances from its previous manifesto had already been fulfilled.
Four years later, however, one question remains stubbornly unanswered:
Where is the 2% home loan for women?
Where is the 4% home loan for men?
Where are the promised residential plots?
And where is the “good quality housing for all Goans” that was to be delivered within five years?
What the Assembly records reveal
The government's own legislative records provide a useful picture of where the Housing Board stood in 2026.
An official Assembly reply identifies 267 residential units under construction across three Housing Board projects for which unit numbers have been provided:
Madel-Thivim: 80 single-bedroom flats
Colvale: 60 double-bedroom flats
Ambaji, Fatorda: 99 two-bedroom and 28 three-bedroom flats
That makes 267 residential units.
The Ambaji project also includes 12 shops, which are not counted as housing. Three additional Housing Board projects at Curca and Penha-de-France remain at the design stage, with no number of housing units specified in the government's answer.
These figures do not mean that 267 is the total number of Housing Board homes in Goa. They are the residential units identified as under construction in the specific projects listed in the Assembly reply.
But they do provide an important snapshot.
For a government elected on a promise of “good quality housing for all Goans”, the publicly identified construction pipeline is remarkably modest.Write your text here...
Even the Atal Asra housing revamp was still pending
Write your teThe same pattern appears elsewhere in the government's housing interventions.
On 12 March 2026, Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phal Dessai answered an Unstarred Legislative Assembly Question concerning the proposed revamp of the Atal Asra Scheme for Backward Classes.
The question specifically asked whether the government had finalised a proposal to introduce the construction of model houses for beneficiaries through government-empanelled contractors.
The answer was blunt:
“No, Not yet.”
Because the revised scheme had not been finalised, the government said that details relating to model-house design, fixed cost, plinth area, contractor empanelment, beneficiary numbers, constituency-wise targets, budget allocation and safeguards were all not applicable.
In other words, even in March 2026, another proposed mechanism for providing actual houses to a vulnerable section of Goan society remained at the formulation stage.xt here...
The Housing Board already has an affordable-housing mandate
This is not even a new responsibility that the government has suddenly discovered. The Goa government's own description of the Goa Housing Board says its objective is to provide residential house sites and housing facilities to the Goan population at reasonable prices. Its stated aim includes providing quality and cost-effective housing and shelter options.
That makes the 2022 BJP promise even more significant. The institutional machinery to provide housing already existed. The Housing Board already had a mandate to provide housing and residential sites at reasonable prices.
What the BJP did in 2022 was make a much more specific political commitment — 2% loans for women, 4% for men and residential plots, within five years.
Four years later, that specific commitment remains the missing piece.
The Karapur paradox: when “affordable housing” creates smaller plots
There is another uncomfortable chapter in Goa's affordable-housing story — Karapur.
Goa's normal residential plot size is 225 sq m, but the Goa (Regulation of Land Development and Building Construction) Relaxation Rules, 2023 allow smaller plots under the State's inclusive and affordable housing framework. For large plotted developments, plots can go down to 100 sq m for up to 70% of the plots, subject to conditions.
The framework is central to the controversy surrounding the Abhinandan Lodha Group's Karapur project, proposed through Errichter Infra Pvt Ltd, which received provisional approval for 1,388 plots ranging from approximately 116 to 170 sq m.
Locals alleges that the project is a commercial development invoking the affordable-housing relaxation, with plots reportedly marketed for more than ₹95 lakh. Although technically illegal, a policy meant to lower the cost of purchasing a plot compared to the market rate was used to increase the number of plots as well as the cost (nearly 5 fold); defeating the very spirit of the policy.
The contrast is stark: while the government is still struggling to formulate affordable housing for ordinary Goans, a regulatory framework created for inclusive and affordable housing has become part of a controversy involving a large private development.
The question is simple: who ultimately benefits from the concession — the Goan family needing an affordable home, or the developer and high-end property buyer?
A new ₹10 crore scheme
Write your textThe government has now given its latest housing promise a formal budgetary shape.
The 2026–27 Budget provides a separate head for Mukhyamantri Awas Yojana under the Housing Department, with ₹10 crore provided for major works.
That is a legitimate government intervention and may eventually result in homes reaching people who genuinely need them.
But again, the existence of this new budget head does not establish fulfilment of the 2022 manifesto commitment.
It is a new scheme with a different mechanism and a narrower target group.
And that distinction matters. here...
Fresh promises, familiar cycles
Programmes such as Mhaje Ghar and Mhajo Flat address genuine problems involving ownership, title and conveyance.
But these are not substitutes for the 2022 promise of subsidised home loans and residential plots.
This is precisely why manifesto promises matter.
A government cannot be judged merely by the number of schemes it announces. It must also be judged against the commitments it made when asking people for their votes.
Otherwise, every unfulfilled promise can simply disappear into a new scheme with a new name.
The five-year clock is ticking
There is nothing inherently illegal or malicious about changing policy when circumstances change. Governments pivot. Schemes evolve. Priorities change. But when a government changes course so substantially, it owes citizens clarity. The BJP did not promise voters in 2022 that it would eventually formulate another housing scheme for the homeless. It promised “good quality housing for all Goans in the next five years.”
More than four years later...
The government has now announced Mukhyamantri Awas Yojana, allocated ₹10 crore for it and begun moving towards government-built housing for the homeless and needy.
Has original promise has been abandoned, modified or replaced, when will the Chief Minister tell Goans that?
Because the issue is no longer whether the government can produce another housing scheme. It is whether it can account for the housing promise on which it asked Goans to vote in 2022.
The BJP promised housing in five years. Four years are gone. The question now is not what the government plans to announce next — but what happened to the promise already made.
Thivim housing board
Karapur club house design
margao housing board complex
