Bengal to ‘survey again’, include maximum beneficiaries under hsg scheme

Kolkata: Chief secretary Manoj Pant held a meeting with district officials on Wednesday to discuss hurdles preventing more people from getting enlisted under the state's rural housing scheme. The meeting was part of the state's efforts to provide homes to those who lost their dwellings in the recent floods and Cyclone Dana.On Tuesday, CM Mamata Banerjee met senior officials to tweak rules and enable maximum people under the state's housing scheme. Sources said the scheme would not only include two-wheeler owners and those whose homes were partly made of concrete — categories ineligible for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana — but also fast-track applications from elderly citizens, people with disabilities, women-headed households and people whose homes suffered damage during natural disasters.Sources said that Pant on Wednesday instructed officials to hold a resurvey, to review the beneficiary list and see to it that no deserving person loses out on the scheme. The state had carried out the survey for the housing scheme in mid-Oct. However, districts like Malda and Nadia experienced substantial name deletions. Officials have been instructed, said sources, to see that new norms were being implemented to enrol beneficiaries according to the CM's directive.Alapan Bandyopadhyay, chief adviser to the CM, said in a press conference that no deserving beneficiary except those already under the Cha Sundari scheme should be out of the housing list. The resurvey will verify beneficiaries' addresses, housing status and other economic parameters, and shouldn't be a cause of worry for those already on the list, he said. Bandyopadhyay explained that since Centre's 60% funding contribution for PMAY was still unreleased, state govt decided to bring out its own scheme and assume full cost.Bandyopadhyay added that Centre not releasing the MGNREGA funds prompted state to create the Karmoshree project, generating 23 crore man-days for 43 lakh workers, providing 54 days of annual employment. As Centre stopped rural road funding, Bengal created Pathoshree, building 25,000 km roads in the state, he added.