Awas Yojana: ‘Despite state having 39L eligible applicants, Centre gave nod to build 11L houses’

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress on Thursday hit out at the BJP-led Centre for not giving approval to all the 39 lakh applicants who have been verified by the state government as eligible candidates for a house under PM Awas Yojana. The Centre has only given permission for setting up around 11 lakh houses, thereby showing a step motherly attitude to Bengal, alleged Trinamool.

Senior Trinamool Congress leaders ~ Chandrima Bhattacharya and Partha Bhowmick during a press conference alleged that the Narendra Modi government only allowed 11 lakh houses when there are total 39 lakh eligible applications. Bhowmick categorically mentioned that the Mamata Banerjee government would construct the houses for the remaining people who may not get a house under the PM Awas Yojana.

Giving a statistics, Bhattacharya said the survey was done in 2018 for the allotment of the houses. Around 56 lakh names of beneficiaries were listed initially. Verifications were conducted later and around 39 lakh names have been finally listed. Now the Centre is saying that they would allow funds for 11,36,000 houses. The Centre bears 60 per cent cost while the state spends 40 per cent, Bhattacharya reminded.

Bhattacharya lashed out at the Modi government saying that the Prime Minister is seeking publicity against the Awas Yojana and therefore they (Centre) refuse to pay if the name of Prime Minister is removed from the scheme. “If the Prime Minister wanted to work for the people, he would not have sought publicity from the scheme. Bengal government runs several social schemes without seeking publicity from them. We never termed it as CM Awas Yojana. As the Centre is not contributing its share, the state is unable to provide the matching grant,” Bhattacharya said.They also challenged the opposition leaders saying that they will not be able to find out a single case where an undeserving candidate has been enlisted.