Kolkata: Bengal is the first among other states when it comes to construction of houses under the housing scheme. Under the Bangla Awas Yojana, till date, sanction has been received for 3466437 houses among which 3208921 dwelling units have been constructed, and as per statistics from the monitoring website of the Union Rural Development department, 92.52 per cent of the houses sanctioned have been completed in the state.
The statistics negate the recent claim made by Rural Development minister Giriraj Singh that Bengal and Chhattisgarh are the two states to have fared poorly in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Bangla Awas Yojana in Bengal).
"The Union minister had alleged that Bengal has not provided data of the housing scheme which is utterly false as every detail has been geo-tagged and the state some months back had received accolades from the Centre in this respect. The report can be accessed through the Centre's own website (https://rhreporting.nic.in/netiay/PhysicalProgressReport/PhysicalProgressRpt.aspx) and is accessible to the general public too," state Panchayats and Rural Development minister Pulak Roy said.
Among the houses sanctioned, 21818 families have been provided with land by the state government, following which the process of approval is underway.
In Bangla Awas Yojana (BWS), over 5686483 beneficiaries have registered and job card mapping of nearly 39 lakh has been done making them eligible for entitlement of benefits.
"24 states in the country have received Central funds in connection with BWS, but till date, Bengal has received no money in 2021-22 fiscal," Roy added.
In 2017 and 2019, Bengal was awarded by the Centre for constructing the highest number of dwelling units under the Yojana. "If the Centre would have continued to offer the awards then Bengal would have bagged the first prize in 2020 and 2021 too," a senior Nabanna official said.
The state government charges nothing for registration, provides a total waiver in mutation fee and even does not impose charges for building plan sanctions.