Kolkata: Another feather was added to Bengal's crown with the state's Banglar Bari scheme securing first position in the country in geo-tagging of houses built in urban areas.
Bengal has topped among all states leaving Andhra Pradesh in the second and Gujarat in the third position.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has stated that Bengal is the best among all in the country in geo-tagging of houses built under the Banglar Bari scheme.
Under the scheme, a beneficiary from an area with more than 5 lakh population gets government (including state government's contribution of Rs 1.83 lakh) support worth Rs 3.33 lakh and himself or herself needs to contribute Rs 35,000.
In the urban areas with less than 5 lakh population, one gets government's financial assistance of Rs 3.43 lakh (including state government's contribution of Rs 1.93 lakh) and needs to contribute Rs 25,000. In a major achievement, Bengal's contribution for the project is highest among all states under the scheme with 1.50 lakh "dwelling units" (each pucca house comes up on a 32.50 square meter of area each) have already been completed and handed over to beneficiaries.
Out of these houses, 1.43 lakh houses have been geotagged which is 97 per cent of the total houses built.
The cumulative expenditure of the state government for the project since inception is Rs 7896.27 crore.
At present, construction of houses for another 1.41 lakh beneficiaries are going on in full swing and construction of another around 1.79 lakh houses would start soon.
At the same time, another around 3.5 lakh more people would be benefitted out of the project in the next few
years.