Awas Yojana survey: State issues guidelines to identify beneficiaries

Kolkata: The Panchayats and Rural Development (P&RD) department issued a set of guidelines regarding the ongoing field survey for identifying beneficiaries of Awas Yojana in Bengal.

The move comes in the wake of alleged irregularities during the survey in a few pockets of the state which according to officials may be due to miscommunication.

The persons involved in the survey were directed to inform political representatives and the public that the verification is done on the sanctioned, Permanent waiting list (PWL) and Comprehensive Public Grievances Monitoring Platform (CMRO) complaint lists.

All the rejected cases will be re-examined and a proper assessment of eligible persons is to be made. Any benefit of doubt by surveyors must be properly examined and no deserving person should be deprived. CMRO and missing data cases must be carefully examined and superior verification must be intensified.

The guideline further calls for taking enough care during data entry of name, bank account number and ID to avoid mismatch.

Proof checking is advised. The police were instructed to do independent verification with a list provided to them.

The department issued directions to prepare a list of disaster-affected persons as per Disaster guidelines and vetted by surveyors during field visits.

Local Gram Panchayat (GP) representatives must be informed about the process and list being used.

Partially damaged houses are not covered under the state’s new scheme.

The surveyors were instructed to analyse rejected and accepted cases GP-wise, and identify extreme rejected/accepted trends, and then start sample checking to validate.

They may have to give a suitable explanation for any rejection or acceptance. There should be proper documentation of every piece of data along with video and photographs and at any time they will be scrutinised.

They were asked to intensify checking and validate the field verification data.

The guideline emphasised ensuring sufficient publicity through announcements and meetings to raise awareness.

It was clearly stated that any negligence or intentional mistakes would not be tolerated.