NEW DELHI: Nearly 6,000 houses under Prime Minister Aawas Yojana (Urban) have been cancelled in three states — Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, and Ladakh.
Lack of proper verification, death, migration or duplicate entry of beneficiaries and non-compliance with the criteria are some of the reasons behind cancellation of houses under the ambitious scheme of the Centre.
MP also proposed cancellation of 1,740 houses in two AHP (affordable housing in partnership) projects, 960 houses in 1 slum redevelopment project and 1,711 in 45 BLC (beneficiary led construction) projects.
In a recently held meeting of the central monitoring committee, the state proposed cancellation of the above houses and the reasons given included death, migration or duplicate entry of beneficiaries and also, some of them were not having their own land.
While approving the proposal, the committee observed that the state authority should have followed due diligence in identifying eligible beneficiaries. Kerala proposed cancellation or curtailment of 1,047 houses in 129 BLC projects due to non-availability of valid documents of beneficiaries, land falling in coastal regulation zones and not meeting criteria.
The central committee in the case of Kerala observed that the state was required to examine the list to avoid any future dispute and resentment of the beneficiaries and approved cancellation of 1047 houses.
In Ladakh, 404 houses were proposed for cancellation after a door-to-door survey by the monitoring committee in Kargil and Leh found that many beneficiaries already had pucca or semi-pucca houses.