The Union Ministry of Rural development has found poor implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) scheme in Odisha.
A Central team visited Odisha earlier this month after expressing dissatisfaction over the action taken report (ATR) submitted by the State government on the findings and recommendations during the first visit.
“During the second visit, it was observed that though the State has taken a few corrective measures in respect of houses inspected in the first visit. However, the situation in other houses in the same gram panchayats remains as it is,” says a statement of Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh in response to a query in the Rajya Sabha.
“Despite a clear-cut advisory of having the PMAY-G logo only, the logo of Biju Pakka Ghar continues to be there and in most of the cases more prominent than PMAY-G logo,” says the reply.
It says, “construction quality continues to be poor. Awaas+ survey has not been conducted properly. Inspection by State government functionaries is almost negligible and the social audit of the scheme is not being conducted.”
Explanation sought
The Ministry had sought explanation from the Naveen Patnaik government when nine members of Parliament alleged that 85% of the 12.85 lakh PMAY-G beneficiaries in Odisha were ineligible for the scheme and majority of funds have been misutilised for personal gains.
“Multiple members of the same family have been granted houses under the scheme and families whose applications were rejected in 2018-19 have been allotted houses in 2019-20,” they had submitted.
The Ministry had constituted a Central team, which visited the State during February 2021 to conduct an inquiry and the team submitted its report.
“The major findings of the report were lack of PMAY-G logo, poor quality of construction, incomplete houses shown as completed in MIS of the PMAY-G, houses sanctioned to ineligible beneficiaries,” the team reported.
The Ministry requested the Odisha government to take action immediately to ensure that perpetrators of the fraud and their collaborators were dealt with sternly, and to submit an ATR at the earliest. The State government submitted the ATR in July 2021. The ATR was found unsatisfactory and not accepted by the Ministry.
Party affiliation
Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs and Jal Shakti Bisweshwar Tudu said, “the Naveen Patnaik Government has resorted to only branding without having necessary fund to spend under the scheme. They have not only committed fraud, but also allocated houses to beneficiaries on basis of their party affiliation.”
The State Congress also came down heavily on the government saying the level of corruption in PMAY-G implementation in Odisha would surpass others in rest of the country.
