KOLKATA: 17 members of the ruling Trinamool Congress-dominated gram panchayat in Murshidabad district, on Saturday, tendered resignation fearing people’s anger over the issue of corruption in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) as names of many eligible applicants living in dilapidated mud-huts were axed from the list of beneficiaries.
Sayed Nasiruddin, the chief of Malihati gram panchayat in Bharatpur-II block, with tears rolling down his faces, said, “We are resigning with painful heart as names of many poor villagers, who deserve to be the beneficiaries of the scheme, were removed from the list of applicants. The deprived applicants are living in dilapidated mud-huts. They are crying and we cannot do anything for them. Fearing people’s anger, we have decided to go for mass resignation.”
Bengal is witnessing protests over the issue of corruption in PMAY as names of many TMC panchayat functionaries and their relatives living in palatial houses were found in the list of applicants depriving the poor people. After halting the fund release under the scheme since December 2021 citing irregularities, the Centre recently approved a fund of Rs 13,000 crore for building up 11.34 lakh homes for the poor by 2026.
“This is the first time in the recent past that elected representatives of the ruling party tendered mass resignation in a gram panchayat losing control of the rural body,” said an official of the state panchayat department. Monika Das, the deputy chief of the gram panchayat, said they failed to deliver justice to the deserving villagers. “Verifications of the applicants were carried out by special teams formed by the district administration. We had no role to play to decide who will get houses under PMAY,” she said after tendering resignation to the local block development officer.
The members of the verification team complained that the TMC satraps mounted pressure on them for keeping their names in the PMAY list. The state government also formed a task force to oversee the process of finalising the list.CPM’s central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty said, “When the preliminary list was prepared, it was under the watch of the panchayat chief. He was aware that genuine people’s names were not in the list. Now they have resigned fearing being lynched by the poor people,” he said.