Baghel slams Centre for withdrawing PMAY-G allocation

Raipur: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Friday hit out at the Centre for withdrawing the allocation made to the state under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) for the financial year 2021-22.

Baghel claimed that the central government has not been releasing the state's pending funds and was instead blaming the state for not completing the target.

The CM was responding to a question about the Union government's move to withdraw its allocation for the PMAY-G citing Chhattisgarh's poor performance.

"We have been raising the issue of the Centre not releasing the pending share of the Central Excise and continuously making reductions in the GST (compensation given to state). These pending amounts are around Rs 21,000 crore to Rs 22,000 crore. It (Centre) is yet to give penalty of Rs 4,140 crore collected from coal miners (who were allotted mines in Chhattisgarh)," Baghel said. On the one hand, the Centre has not been releasing pending funds with it, while on the other hand, it is accusing the state of not completing (the target), he said. Speaking about the PMAY-G, the chief minister further said that if the scheme is named after the prime minister, then why was the fund allocation ratio between the Centre and the state 60:40.

"The entire fund for the scheme should be given by the Centre. When did we say that we will not make (houses under the scheme)? As soon as we have the funds, we will deposit it (for the scheme) again and build houses for the poor," Baghel said. In a letter dated November 17, the Union Ministry of Rural Development to Chhattisgarh, had stated the target of 7,81,999 houses in rural areas allocated to the state for the financial year 2021-22 was withdrawn with immediate effect.