New Deli: Centre has asked states to “sensitise” people and do “proper handholding” of officials to convince people to accept the grant under the housing scheme as people from the villages are unwilling to get houses constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY-G).
In the month of June it had been reported that more than 161,000 potential beneficiaries did not get a house under the PMAY (G) because either they were simply unwilling to get one or they could not get one due to ineligibility or misuse of the grant. Major reasons cited by states for the phenomenon were beneficiaries unwilling due to personal reasons such as being single men or women aged above 65 years, financially poor, not wishing to construct a house, living in a sensitive area and hence unable to construct a house, living in a sensitive area and hence unable to construct the house at present or having migrated or being untraceable. The highest number of potential beneficiaries are in Andhra Pradesh (50,122), followed by Madhya Pradesh (41,058) and Maharashtra (19,594).
On August 29, in a letter to the states Centre said that the beneficiaries are identified based on housing depravation parameters and belong to the most vulnerable strata of society. Getting assistance for construction of a house is a dream come true for such households.
It said that in cases where the beneficiary is old, infirm and not in a position to construct the house on his own, such houses shall be built as part of the rural mason training programme. The Centre also wrote to the states that the reasons of single persons above 65 years and financially poor should not be considered for deletion of the names as they should be sensitised and proper handholding needs to be provided to ground-level officials for construction of the house.
The Centre also directed states that “requisite support” be provided to those who cannot construct a house due to living in sensitive areas such as those affected by left-wing extremism and that the beneficiaries’ names should not be deleted even if they have migrated from the area or gone untraceable as “they might come back again at a later time to claim the assistance under PMAY”. It said that even then if a person remains uninterested in building a house and accept the government grant, “the exact reason for not showing interest should be ascertained from the beneficiary before taking a decision on deletion”.
Source: Economic Times
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