State issues SOP for verification of Awas Yojana beneficiaries
Kolkata: To identify beneficiaries of Awas Yojana, the state government has issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) which entails layers of verification to ensure transparency.
Video recording of the verification process has been made mandatory and two photographs are to be collected for future reference. “We have released a standard operating procedure to ensure transparency. There will be various layers of inspection and independent sample verification by the ICs/ OCs of the police station in consultation with the district administration,” said a Panchayats and Rural Development (P&RD ) department official. The Block Development Officer (BDO) shall constitute at least one team per Gram Panchayat (GP) consisting of three permanent government officials. To ensure neutrality and transparency, their selections shall be carefully made and biodata verified before inducting them.
The GP-wise teams will collect a list of households from the BDO office, visit them and verify eligibility according to the criteria set for the same. Entire verification should be done on a notified mobile application. The team officials and supervisors shall be responsible for any error or complaint with respect to the assessment of eligibility. Suitable disciplinary action will be initiated for negligence or wilful disobedience.
The list of beneficiaries after verification shall be displayed in every GP, BDO and SDO office for public scrutiny. The objections received shall be disposed within five working days.
According to the SOP, the BDO/ Joint BDO shall cross-verify 15 per cent of the houses already inspected by the verification teams.Sub-divisional level officers shall cross-verify five per cent of the houses already inspected by the verification teams. The independent state-level monitoring team will also be deputed for monitoring and verification purposes. Independent sample verification by the ICs/OCs of the police station to be carried out in consultation with the district administration. Entire cross-verification will be done on the mobile app itself.
The social audit team of the state will carry an audit to assess the accuracy of the entire verification process. The entire procedure of preparation of final beneficiaries list and the process flow for the exercise is stated in the SOP. House-to-house verification will be held from October 21 to 30.
The cross-checking should be done within November 14. The data entry and provisional list preparation within November 20. Displaying of the beneficiary list at BDO, SDO, DM office and on the official website of the district along with disposal of applications should be made from November 21 to 27.The approval by the Gram Sabha, Block Level Committee, and District Level Committee should be done within December 4, 9 and 13, respectively. The release of funds should be made within December 20.
