Center will impose fine on backward states for not meeting the targets of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Rural)
Center will impose fine on backward states for not meeting the targets of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Rural)
Slamming the states for the delay in completing the Narendra Modi government’s flagship rural household scheme – Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin), the Union Rural Development Ministry has come up with a set of penalties that will have to be borne by the state governments going forward. delay. Opposition-ruled West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Odisha as well as BJP-ruled Assam are the four backward states that are well behind their targets.
This is the first time that the scheme was started in April 2016. Target to build 2.95 crore houses, that the Central Government has introduced a penal clause. Under the scheme, the government has set a target of 2.95 crore houses. This number is derived from the Socio-Economic Caste Survey, 2011.
The initial deadline for the scheme was March 2022, which was extended by two more years till March 2024 due to the COVID pandemic. As per the data available with the Union Ministry of Rural Development, 2.02 crore houses have been constructed till August 2022.
On September 13, the ministry sent a circular to all state governments listing six penal clauses. If there is a delay in sanction of house by more than one month from the date of issue of target, the state government will be fined ₹10 per house for delay in the first month and ₹20 per house for each subsequent delay. will be imposed. Similarly, if the beneficiary’s first installment is delayed by more than seven days from the date of sanction, the state governments will have to pay ₹10 per week of delay. The circular specified that no penalty would be levied if central funds are not available with the state.
“The order is only to ensure that the states pay more attention to the programme. Due to the COVID pandemic, we have already missed a deadline and now we have only 19 months till March 2024 to complete all the pending houses,” said a senior ministry official.
Out of the remaining 93 lakh households, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal are the biggest culprits. The central government has not yet released funds for 12 lakh houses in Chhattisgarh and 11 lakh in West Bengal. Funds of these two states for this financial year were withheld for various defaults.
In the case of West Bengal, following complaints from state BJP MPs against the Mamata Banerjee government’s move to repackage the scheme as a “Bangla Awas Yojana” and other procedural gaps, the central government sought a response pending a response from the state government. Due to which the money was stopped. , According to sources, the West Bengal government has recently answered all the questions raised by the Union ministry. The decision to release the funds is now with the Union Minister Giriraj Singh.
In the case of Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh, the funds were withheld by the central government over the state government’s failure to put in its share of the contribution. For most states, the total expenditure is shared by the Center and the state at the rate of 40-60%. State government sources said the state has paid its share recently and is waiting for the central government’s share to start work on its pending target.
Among other states, Assam has not sanctioned seven lakh houses and Odisha has not sanctioned nine lakh houses. Maharashtra with 2.5 lakh houses and Bihar with two lakh houses are also among the top offenders.