Amidst the ongoing tussle between the Union Rural Development Ministry and the West Bengal government over violations of "core features" of the centrally sponsored schemes, the State government has sent in a detailed report of corrective measures taken by them for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Gramin. Now the ball is centre's court on release the dues to West Bengal.
As on September 30 PMAY-G that was originally set to complete in March 2022 in 91.05% houses have been sanctioned. These figures include those under construction and also completed.
Earlier this year, the centre refused to release funds to sanction 11 lakh houses in West Bengal after BJP MPs from the state accused the Trinamool Congress government in the state of appropriating the scheme to politically exploit it. They claimed that Mamata Banerjee government re-packaged the scheme as "Bangla Awas Yojana", prominently displaying the state logo eclipsing the scheme's original name. Based on their complaint, the Union Rural Development Ministry accusing the state of tampering with the core features of scheme, withheld funds, pending enquiry.
Parallelly, the centre has also withheld funds amounting to ₹7000 crore to West Bengal for MNREGA on various procedural lapses.
Between July and August this year, the centre had sent teams to 15 districts of West Bengal to inspect the implementation and had submitted a detailed report flagging "citizens information board, size of dwelling units, availability of toilets and LPG connections, allegation of bribery, display of official name of the scheme and so on".
In response to the centre's report, West Bengal government has sent an "action taken" report on October 14 accessed by The Hindu, listing out many corrective steps taken up by the state administration. The report mentions that in most houses permanent logo along of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin has been put on display, which was one of the biggest complains from the centre.
The State government though has countered the other allegations including 'wrongful rejection". The centre had accused the State government of "picking and choosing" the beneficiaries, though, the list of beneficiaries in case of PMAY-G was concretised from Socio-Economic-Caste-Census of 2011, which the state government has countered. Citing specific cases, the state government has said, that no new beneficiaries were added or subtracted from the existing list.
The State government has further assured the centre that regular inspections will be done and a dedicated grievance redressal mechanism has been put in place. "All necessary action for complying with recommendation of central teams and advisories of the Ministry of Rural Development has been taken. Continuous efforts are being made to bring changes in implementation, training, monitoring and disposal of complaints for better execution of PMAY-G scheme at the grassroot level," the state wrote to a letter addressed to Secretary for Rural Development.
The ball is now in the union government's court on whether it will restore the funds to the State government or not.
