E-Paper
Baghel writes to PM seeking allocation of houses, funds for home for beneficiaries
In a letter to prime minister dated July 30, Baghel said this would benefit 8,19,999 families which have been identified under the Awas-Plus survey
Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking allocation of houses for the beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), who are on the waiting list, according to the state-based 2011 Socio-Economic Caste Census-2011 (SECC).
The chief minister has also requested the PM to allocate funds for homes for the year 2021-22, which was held.
In a letter to the prime minister dated July 30, Baghel said this would benefit 8,19,999 families, which have been identified under the Awas-Plus survey.
The Chhattisgarh chief minister on Wednesday made the letter public by sharing the letter on Twitter.
In 2018-19, the government conducted an Awas Plus survey to identify those who claimed to have been left out under the SECC- 2011. The data of beneficiaries captured through Awas Plus is utilised to fill the gaps between the overall target and eligible beneficiaries made available from the ‘SECC permanent wait list’, officials said.
“At present, 18,75,585 beneficiaries are listed in the permanent wait list (PWL) for rural areas under the PMAY based on the Socio-Economic Caste Census-2011. Of these, 11,76,146 beneficiaries were allocated houses between 2016 to 2023. The construction of about 73.5 per cent (8,63,567) of allocated houses has been completed. Thus, 6,99,439 beneficiaries are yet to be covered,” the letter from Baghel reads.
He said additionally the target of 7,81,999 houses allocated for 2021-22 to the state was withdrawn by the Centre which he requested the PM to reallocate it.
“The state government had earlier written to the Centre on August 18, 2022, seeking reallocation of this target in instalments, but the Centre’s response was still awaited. In 2022-23, a target of only 79,000 houses was allocated to Chhattisgarh,” the letter stated.
Despite the challenging circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic, Chhattisgarh was a leading state in the country in terms of completion of houses and its execution of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana was better compared to the estimated annual budget expenditure, the chief minister said.
The state government has allocated ₹3,238 crore in the 2023-24 budget to complete 2,36,813 approved houses for the years 2020-21 and 2022-23, out of which ₹674.75 crore has been disbursed, he said.
Due to the non-allocation of targets for 6,99,439 remaining houses in the PWL, the state government could not issue approvals and even the allocation of houses to 8,19,999 beneficiaries under the Awas Plus scheme could not be granted, Baghel said in the letter.
He requested the prime minister to allocate funds for the remaining houses in the existing PWL and also for Awas Plus beneficiaries so that the objective of the scheme can be achieved.
According to officials, the identification of beneficiaries under PMAY-Gramin is based on the housing deprivation parameters and exclusion criteria prescribed under SECC-2011.
Reacting to Baghel’s letter, Bharatiya Janata Party state president Arun Sao said Baghel’s anti-poor act has once again come to the fore after he wrote a letter to the PM in connection with the housing scheme a few months ahead of assembly elections.
“He is shedding crocodile tears by writing letters to the PM ahead of polls. He has rubbed salt on the wounds of 16 lakh families who were deprived of houses due to the Baghel government’s failure in implementing the PM housing scheme,” said Sao.
“Since Congress came to power in the state, the Centre has written to the state government several times asking to contribute its share under the PMAY and effectively implement the scheme. Bhupesh Baghel government did not give its consent to the allocation of houses under PMAY in 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22,” Sao added.
