In a significant development, a study commissioned by the Union Rural Development Ministry has sought the revision of the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC)-2011 list which was prepared following a mammoth exercise during the UPA regime almost eight years ago.
The recommendation to revise the list came after numerous variations were pointed out by the study in the central rural scheme Pradhan Manti Awas Yojana-Grameen (PMAY-G) list prepared on the basis of the SECC data.
The study conducted as part of the Fifth Common Review Mission (CRM) for “independent assessment” of the progress of various programmes and schemes of the Rural Development Ministry, noted that “there have been serious errors of exclusion and inclusion and as such it may be risk to base selection of beneficiaries for any schemes only on basis of these lists.”
It was prepared by a 31-member CRM team led by Rajeev Kapoor, retired IAS and State Information Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh.
The team, with retired bureaucrats, academics and research organisations as members, had visited 120 various villages in more than 21 districts across eight states — Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh — during November 4-14, 2019.
Under the Pradhan Manti Awas Yojana-Grameen, the Government has plans to construct 1 crore houses under first phase from 2016-19 against which 97.9 lakhs have been sanctioned but only 84.80 lakhs have been completed so far.