KOLKATA: With over 5.5 lakh applicants being rejected under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the majority belongs to the Trinamool Congress’s panchayat functionaries, satraps of the ruling party and their relatives.
The names were removed from the list of eligible beneficiaries of the Central scheme after they failed to meet the eligibility criteria during verification checks. In the list prepared on December 10, names of 45.72 lakh people were mentioned and after the verification process, 40.27 lakh people were found to be eligible. The Centre had stopped the funding under the scheme since December 2021 citing irregularities, and has recently approved a fund of Rs 13,000 crore for building 11.34 lakh homes for the poor by 2026.
This time, the Centre is keeping a close watch on the disbursal of funds under PMAY. “The Centre has laid down 14 conditions to identify an applicant as an eligible beneficiary. We have set up teams for spot verification to find out eligibility of the applicants. At many places, ineligible panchayat functionaries and local political leaders tried to build up pressure on the team keeping their names in the list of applicants. Thousands of applicants were found ineligible despite living in concrete and palatial houses,’’ said an official of the state government.
Several demonstrations are being staged in different parts of the states by deprived people alleging that many already living in pucca houses were declared eligible depriving the genuine people of the benefits. In Murshidabad, 17 members of a TMC-dominated gram panchayat, including the chief and the deputy chief, tendered resignation fearing people’s ire as many poor living in dilapidated mud-huts did not find a place in the list of beneficiaries.
