The rural development ministry has asked the Centre to consider funding 60 lakh additional houses over the next four years under the Bharat Nirman scheme over and above the approved programme for 60 lakh houses. This would call for an additional annual expenditure of Rs 2,843 crore. In a recent meeting for assessing the additional fund requirement for the Bharat Nirman programme, which is a Rs 1,75,000 crore plan for improving rural infrastructure, rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh pointed out that the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had mandated that housing for weaker sections should be expanded on a large scale.