The Kochi Corporation collected excess amounts from the beneficiaries of the Basic Service to Urban Poor (BSUP) housing scheme in violation of the project guidelines, the Comptroller and Auditor General has said. The findings were included in the Audit Report for the year ended March 2014. The national auditor pointed out that the scheme guidelines provided that the beneficiaries belonging to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Backward Communities, Other Backward Communities (OBC) and Physically Handicapped categories need not contribute 10 per cent of the project cost as beneficiary contribution.
The audit reported that Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi Corporations collected beneficiary contribution at the rate of 12 per cent of the project cost, which was applicable only to general category. The two local bodies thus collected Rs. 2.69 crore from 11,006 beneficiaries for whom individual houses were sanctioned. While Thiruvananthapuram Corporation collected Rs. 1.76 crore, Kochi Corporation collected Rs. 93 lakh.
