BHUBANESWAR: The Centre on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha that repeated requests of states including Odisha for opening of Awaas+ portal for re-survey of households to include eligible persons in the list of beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) has not been accepted.
In a written reply to a question from BJD MP Sasmit Patra, Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said the ministry has not allowed opening of Awaas+ portal for any state or union territory for re-survey after March 7, 2019.
As Patra sought to know when the special window will be opened for Odisha, the minister clarified that the Awaas+ survey exercise was initiated under PMAY-G in January 2018 with an initial deadline of March 31, 2018 for identification of eligible households which were left out and not covered in the SECC 2011 survey.
The deadline was extended four times till March 7, 2019. Two special windows were given to Odisha after the deadline in the wake of cyclone Fani and the state government registered 13,20,945 potentially eligible households. The minister said the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) conducted an inquiry following complaints from members of Parliament of the state about irregularities in implementation of PMAY-G. The matter was taken up with the state government.
However, the action taken reports (ATRs) from the state government were delayed despite repeated reminders. In order to resolve the issue, a meeting was held on August 11, 2022 under the chairmanship of MoRD minister where the Odisha minister for rural development committed to adhere to guidelines in implementation of the scheme. This was reiterated in the final ATR submitted by the state, which was also accepted.
The ministry allowed the state government on September 5, 2022 for synchronisation of data from its rural housing portal to the national Awaas+ database as requested by the state government at various forums of potentially eligible households captured till the cut-off date of Awaas+ survey which was March 7, 2019.
However, the request for opening of the Awaas+ portal for re-survey has not been acceded to since sufficient time had been given to all the states and union territories by way of multiple extensions, including Odisha where special windows were also granted, she said.