A significant section of the landless population in Odisha has been denied access to the Prime Minister Awas Yojna – Gramin because no homestead land was made available for construction of PMAY-G houses.
“Out of 57,932 landless beneficiaries (as on March 2021), 40,608 (70%) beneficiaries could not be provided houses, as no homestead lands were made available to them, for construction of PMAY-G houses,” said the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its latest audit of local bodies. The audit report was tabled in Odisha Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
With the objective of ‘Housing for all’ by 2022, the Government of India (GoI) restructured the erstwhile housing scheme, Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY), into the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), with effect from April 1, 2016. Under the scheme, pucca (concrete) houses, with basic amenities, were to be provided to all homeless households (HHs) and those living in kutcha or dilapidated houses, by 2022.
Performance audit
The CAG carried out performance audit on PMAY-G, for five years, from 2016-17 to 2020-21, in eight districts. The PMAY-G scheme stipulates construction of houses for landless beneficiaries, by providing homestead land, through the State Government.
As families, with no homestead land to construct houses were the most deserving among the left out families, the CAG quoted the Odisha government’s August 2019 instruction to all collectors and asked them to allot land to the landless families.
The CAG audit noted that the Block Development Officer, Kosagumuda in Nabarangpur district identified 28 landless beneficiaries and requested (August 2019) the concerned Tahsildar, Kodinga, to ensure provision of land, for construction of the PMAY-G houses.
“Out of these 28 identified landless beneficiaries, only seven beneficiaries were provided with houses, while the names of the remaining 21 beneficiaries were deleted from the list of landless beneficiaries, without any recorded reason,” it says.
According to the CAG report, States are mandated to ensure that 3% of beneficiaries are from among Persons with Disabilities (PwD). “Odisha’s Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities department intimated (December 2019) that allocation of houses, under the PMAY-G, to PwDs, was far below the desired allocation of 5% and requested it to earmark 5% of the total allocation of houses under PMAY-G, in all districts of Odisha,” the audit pointed out.
Disabled also ignored
As per Census 2011 data, total PwD households in the State were 6.42 lakh. Out of these, 3.45 lakh PwDs, who lived in 0, 1 or 2 roomed kutcha houses, were eligible to be covered under the scheme.
“It is evident that only 0.12% of the total houses were sanctioned for the PwD category,” the audit found
The CAG noted that as per SECC-2011 data, there were 3.45 lakh eligible households with PwDs in the State, against which 83,962 beneficiaries needed to be covered, to meet the prescribed norms of the scheme. Records do not, however, indicate that the Department took any steps to provide homes to the required percentage of beneficiaries, from amongst the PwDs, it pointed out.
The apex audit agency recommended that landless beneficiaries should be allotted land for construction of houses and PwD beneficiaries should be given priority in allotment of houses in coordination with the respective departments.
