GOALPARA, Jan 20 - The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna-Gramin (PMAY-G) was ceremonially launched in the district along with the State by distributing sanction letters to beneficiaries at a programme held at Balijana Block on Thursday.
Giving a auspicious start to the programme by breaking protocol and sitting on the stage floor and identifying with the women audience, who are part of gram swaraj, the Deputy Commissioner JVN Subramanyam said that in view of the Government�s commitment to provide housing for the rural poor by 2022, the Indira Awas Yojna (IAY) has been restructured to PMAY-G and a total of 38,079 units will be constructed in the district by 2022.
He also informed that a target of 7585 units have been earmarked for 2016-17 where each of the beneficiaries will get an amount of Rs 1,30,000 for construction of their homes with an enhanced size of 25 sq mtrs including space for hygienic cooking and with the provision of toilets at Rs 12,000 under SBM (G) and 95 days of unskilled wage labour under MNREGA over and above the unit cost totalling Rs 1,60,000. He also mentioned that the total amount will be transferred electronically directly to the beneficiary�s account in three instalments and urged all the PMAY-G beneficiaries to complete the construction of their housing unit within the month of May, 2017 so that the submission of utilisation certificates for the next sanction be made within the stipulated time, but he also warned that if there is any instances of misuse of the grant amount is detected then penal actions will be taken against the offender who will also have to refund the amount with interest.
Subramanyam also informed that there will be constant monitoring of the scheme and adequate steps will be taken to curb corruption during the implementation and the photos of all the housing units will uploaded to the computer which will then be easily identified with GPS coordinates.
The Deputy Commissioner further added that the PMAY-G (priority setting) beneficiaries lists have been prepared in a transparent manner and the beneficiaries have been chosen on the information available on Socio Economic Caste Census, (SECC) 2011 database and on the basis of deprivation index leaving no room for manipulations. He further informed the large gathering that an additional list totalling more than 68,000 beneficiaries selected on the basis of 13 exclusion parameters in the SECC, 2011 has been sent to the State Government.
Meanwhile, guest of honour MLA (Goalpara West) Abdur Rashid Mondal in his brief speech welcomed the Government�s initiatives which benefit the poor people and urged the Deputy Commissioner to include the names of the rural poor who have been excluded from the PMAY-G list. While urging the beneficiaries to fully utilise the money meant for constructing their homes, he pointed out that the implementation of scheme should be free from the middlemen and corruption. Many others including the ZPC, panchayat members spoke on the occasion while the BDO, Balijana block Abdul Majid conducted the proceedings of the programme.
Earlier, the large gathering of people lauded the speeches of the Additional Chief Secretary MGVK Bhanu and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal which were aired live from the venue.