FIR ordered against 17 for irregularities in central housing plan
PM AWAS YOJANA DM calls for action against illegal beneficiaries
GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad district administration on Sunday directed lodging of FIRS against 17 people and also recommended the state government to levy ₹5 lakh penalty against the firm entrusted with geo-tagging of houses constructed under the Centre’s flagship scheme of PM Awas Yojana. The officials said the list of 17 include 12 individuals who were not eligible beneficiaries of the scheme and five employees of the firm which was engaged for geo-tagging survey at Dasna.
District magistrate Dr Ajay Shankar Pandey conducted a confidential inquiry upon complaints that housing under the scheme in Dasna town have been given to ineligible people and they took benefits under the scheme with alleged connivance of the surveyors of the firm taking up doing geo-tagging of the houses.
“We found 12 persons were not eligible to get housing under the scheme. Eight of the 12 had their own houses but applied and procured houses. The other four obtained loans of ₹2.5 lakh each by providing false information about their land. In fact, the land that they disclosed as theirs belonged to the government and they obtained loan under the scheme for construction of house,” Pandey said.
The 12 accused have been identified as Arif Ali, Riyazuddin, Sanjeeda, Sagiran, Shah Alam, Mohammad Akhlaq, Firdaus, Zahid, Aneesa, Babu, Meharban and Shameem.
The eligible applicants under the scheme can apply for getting a housing unit or can apply for loan to get their house constructed on their private land.
“Further, five surveyors of the firm which is taking up geo-tagging of housing under the scheme have also been identified. I have asked the officials of the district urban development authority to lodge FIRS against them as well,” he added.
The DM has also asked officials to initiate recovery proceedings by issuance of recovery certificates.similar cases had earlier surfaced at Arthala as well as Dundahera where ineligible applicants obtained loans for construction of housing after occupying government land.
The PM Awas Yojana is flagship scheme of the Central government. Agencies such as Ghaziabad Development Authority have been given a target to construct about 36,000 units under the scheme by year 2021.
The GDA is developing a housing scheme on its own land as well as free of cost land belonging to the gram sabhas at different locations such as Masuri, Akbarpur, Niwari, Dasna, etc. Several DPRS have also been submitted by private developers to construct houses under the scheme.
GDA officials said the cost of each house on free land is about ₹5-6 lakh against the scheduled cost of ₹4.5 lakh given under the scheme. They said the cost of each house rises to about ₹11 lakh if it is constructed on own land.
“So far the DPRS have been sent to the state government for 14,154 housing units under the scheme. This will put an additional burden of ₹953 crore on the government. So a meeting was held in Lucknow to discuss the cost issues for development authorities as well as the houses constructed by the private developers. The officials have in-principle agreed to revise the cost, but an order is awaited,” said VN Singh, GDA chief engineer.