Distribution of houses released by the Centre under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to the beneficiaries

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday called upon the state government to follow transparent methods towards distribution of houses released by the Centre under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) to the beneficiaries.

The union minister said the state should thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for relaxing the criteria for inclusion of beneficiaries under the PMAY. Though the state requirement was projected between 26 to 27 lakh houses, Centre has released 27.5 lakh houses under the PMAY for Odisha in two installments, he added.

He said though the Awas plus portal was open for one-and-a-half years from 2018, the state government failed to include names of beneficiaries. Later, Union Panchayati Raj minister Giriraj Singh was repeatedly requested to open Awas Plus portal for inclusion of names of beneficiaries, he added.

It was decided that additional eight lakh houses will be released for Odisha after the portal was opened. Besides, a decision was taken to provide 1.5 lakh houses under the PMAY for people affected by cyclone Fani. In the first installment, Centre released 9.5 lakh houses under the PMAY in the second phase.

The union minister said that earlier the Centre had released 18 lakh houses for the beneficiaries under the first phase. However, Pradhan stated there has been complaints of large scale irregularities in the allotment of PMAY houses to the beneficiaries by the state government.

He said the state government should now take up responsibility for allotment of houses to the beneficiaries in a transparent manner without putting pressure on the poor people. Referring to the state government’s argument that people should lodge complaint if they find names of ineligible persons in the beneficiary list.

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