BHUBANESWAR: Putting Odisha government in a spot, the Centre has confirmed gross irregularities in selection of beneficiaries, defalcation of funds and other lapses in the flagship rural housing scheme under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G).
Pointing out specific cases, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has sought recovery of funds released to ineligible beneficiaries and criminal proceedings against officials responsible for committing fraud and swindling government funds.
“I would like to request you to direct the officials concerned for initiating action immediately on the cases of irregularities in order to ensure that the perpetrators of the fraud and their collaborators are dealt with sternly,” said a letter from Union Rural Development Secretary Nagendra Nath Sinha to Chief Secretary Suresh Mahapatra.
Sharing the findings of the inquiry report of the Central team with the State government on April 22, Sinha requested Mahapatra to submit an action taken report to the MoRD at the earliest.
The State government, however, was sitting over the matter till Friday when BJP MP from Sundargarh Jual Oram shared a letter along with the inquiry report from the Union Minister with the media.
The Central team observed several cases of irregularities such as absence of PMAY-G logo on houses, poor quality construction and moreover, houses shown completed on AwaasSoft found incomplete during inspection.
Some of the irregularities mentioned in the report said both the father and son have been sanctioned houses, while full funds have been released to some of the beneficiaries without any construction. In other cases, the PMAY funds have been diverted.
While asking the State government to recover funds from ineligible beneficiaries, the Centre directed criminal action against authorities concerned in case of fund diversion.
Centre flags PMAY-G scam, seeks action against officials
“FIR should be filed against the erring officials immediately and action be taken against the BDO, the second signatory of the PTOs and other supervisors who would have certified and inspected the works. Show cause be served against the district officials concerned for not taking timely stern action against the erring officials,” the MoRD said.
The Ministry has further asked the government to give wide publicity to the action taken in the matter including on social media.
“It has been proved beyond doubt that the allegations of the BJP are true and the ruling BJD has been doing politics by appropriating the Central scheme as its own by putting Biju logo in PMAY-G houses,” said Oram.
The State government by not initiating any action against the erring officials has accepted its involvement in the scam, he added. Oram was part of the delegation of BJP MPs which met Tomar in December last year demanding a probe into rural housing scam.