BHUBANESWAR: The Assembly Standing Committee on Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department has recommended that the State Government should cancel houses sanctioned under Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) and Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana (BPGY) to the beneficiaries who have failed to construct houses within stipulated time.
The House committee, headed by senior BJD MLA and former minister Bed Prakas Agarwal, has suggested that the beneficiaries who have availed funds under IAY and BPGY but have not constructed houses under these schemes may be asked to refund the money and they should be covered under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme.
It has come to the notice of the committee that most of the beneficiaries who have availed funds for construction of houses under IAY/BPGY have not utilised the money for the purpose it was sanctioned. “The beneficiaries who have failed to construct houses under IAY/BPGY schemes may be asked to refund the money as the same beneficiaries will be included under PMAY,” the House committee said.
Official sources said the Odisha Government has set a target to complete 1,32,378 houses under the three State-sponsored schemes - BPGY, BPGY-Mining and Nirman Sharmik Pucca Ghar Yojna (NSPGY) - during the last fiscal while only 52,104 houses have been completed under the schemes, which is 53.92 per cent of the target.
Similarly, the State Government had planned to complete construction of 7,36,257 houses under PMAY (Gramin) and IAY of which 2,50,223 houses have been completed till March-end. According to the House committee report, the physical and financial achievements in 2017-18 was 3,03,327 housing units with an expenditure of Rs 4,773.23 crore.
A recent review by Chief Secretary AP Padhi said about 14,50,249 houses have been constructed under rural housing scheme since 2014-15. While over 9,73,273 houses have been constructed under IAY, 2,31,467 houses have been completed under PMAY. The State, which had made a budgetary allocation of Rs 5,373 crore for housing under Central-sponsored scheme, has made a provision of Rs 3,592.34 crore for the current fiscal.