Fresh hope for those left out of PM’s housing scheme

There is no need to lose hope for the families that were earlier left out of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). The centre has directed the state government to submit a fresh proposal by March after including all the left out families in the scheme.

The development is being seen as a big relief to the state BJP government ahead of the state assembly election scheduled later this year.

Promising housing for all by 2022, PM Narendra Modi had launched the PMAY in June 2015. The state government prepared a list of the beneficiaries under the scheme on the basis of the Socio Economic Census 2011, due to which lakhs of families, which were not covered in the 2011 census, were deprived of the benefit.

Barmer MP Col Sonaram Choudhary had raised the issue in parliament in March last year. Later, the BJP MP also wrote many letters to the centre and sought state government’s intervention in the matter.

Choudhary informed the government that the list of beneficiaries was prepared on the basis of the 2011 census.

He also alleged negligence on part of the survey agency and political rivalry at the local level as the added reasons, which deprived houses to the eligible beneficiaries.

Choudhary informed the government that only in his parliamentary constituency about 2,85,099 applications were pending under the scheme. He requested the government to review the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana guidelines.

The centre recently announced to include all the left out families in the scheme and directed the state government to submit a fresh proposal by March. After getting directions from the centre on February 9, KK Sharma, the executive engineer of rural development department in Rajasthan, directed all district collectors in the state to identify the eligible families left out of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and submit the list to the government by February 28.

ML Nehra, the chief executive engineer of Barmer Zila Parishad, confirmed the development. He said that following the directions, the district officials have started preparation to identify the left out families under the scheme.

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