A team of 20 officials from the Ministry of Rural Development last week toured 10 districts of West Bengal, to inspect the implementation of rural housing scheme – Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G).
The Centre had withheld the ₹8,000-crore pay-out to the State for the scheme last year. Now, houses for over 11 lakh families in the State hinges on the findings of this team.
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The report will also be politically crucial in the State with panchayat polls for 825 seats spread across 20 zilla parishads, 9,217 panchayat samitis and 48,649 gram panchayats expected to be held by June this year, though no dates have been announced so far.
In December last year, 11.36 lakh houses were sanctioned for the State under the scheme. But within days, host of complaints from the BJP leadership in the State, including many from the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, landed at the Ministry’s door, putting brakes on the plan.
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Consequently, the Centre withheld the funds and dispatched a team of National Level Monitors to the 10 districts. They toured the State in January this year. “Out of the 10 districts they toured, there were no problems found in the implementation in three districts. In the other seven, there were certain deviations from the guidelines laid down,” a senior official explained.
A second round
The State administration was asked to take corrective steps and submit a detailed report confirming the rules. The Union Government, however, did not find the administration’s answers satisfactory and decided to carry out a second round of investigations.
“The term of reference for the present team is to cross-check the reply sent by the State Government. We will finalise the report in a week or 10 days’ time, since many members of the inspection team are still submitting their report,” another official confirming the events said.
According to sources, the teams haven’t found any large-scale bungling. The main complaint against the State Government was that they tweaked the beneficiary list to favour the ruling Trinamool Congress’s cadre. As per the submissions made so far, there is no evidence to support these complaints. The final decision on whether the money will be released or not depends on the outcome in the final report.
On April 6, a delegation of 25 Trinamool MPs led by the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had turned up to meet Union Minister Giriraj Singh, demanding payment of the dues to the State under both MNREGS and PMAY-G.
The Centre owes the State ₹6,500 under MNREGS. The State was also not allotted any budget for the scheme this year.
