NEW DELHI: A total of 61,101 false claims were received in the last two years for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), a Ministry of Rural Development report has revealed. Uttar Pradesh topped the list of states with the highest number of false claims filed — 16,392. Telangana and Rajasthan followed with 14,765 and 12,828 such cases, respectively. “The main reason for this is that people are not aware of the eligibility criteria. Most of the invalid claims are due to the fact that the family income is above Rs 6 lakh,” a ministry official said. One’s family income needs to be between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 6 lakh to avail of the scheme.
According to the official, another major reason for rejection of claims is that the person availing the scheme has children who are married. “The scheme guidelines clearly state that only a couple with unmarried children is eligible to avail the benefits of the scheme.”
However, the number of false claims rectified stood at a paltry 287. Ministry officials attributed this to the long process involved in rectification. “When we say a claim is false, we verify and re-verify the details. Sometimes, we are forced to send a team from the state rural department to the claimant’s house to physically verify things. This is a time-taking process and hence the number of rectifications is less,” the official said.
In terms of rectifying false claims, Gujarat tops the list. Of the 1,257 false claims, 197 have been rectified. It is followed by Telangana with 45 claims rectified and Rajasthan with 31. Assam and Bihar did not rectify even a single of the 1,416 and 1,280 false claims they received.
Experts find the scenario disturbing. Professor H S Solanki of the National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad, is of the opinion that false claims are leading to the scheme not being implemented effectively. “There is a lot of confusion among the people. Some states have their own housing schemes and people tend to confuse them with PMAY-G. This is hampering the implementation. The ministry must make a list of beneficiaries and also of those who have availed benefits of the state housing scheme,” he said.
Awareness camps about PMAY-G would be launched to ensure that people do not mistake the central scheme for the state one and vice-versa. “Once the beneficiary is clear which scheme he will apply for, the chances of his/her application being rejected for unfulfillment of criteria are less and hence the scheme will be implemented effectively. This will benefit the state housing schemes as well,” the official said.