Centre-funded Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana guarantees ‘Housing for All’ by 2022, but makes no promise that it will be easy to understand. This much can be gathered from Ranchi Municipal Corporation Ward Councillors, who seem baffled by the project’s provisions.
Meanwhile, the deadline for submitting the findings of demand survey, which is next Monday, to be conducted among beneficiaries of the housing project draws near.
To address these issues, ward councillors gathered at RMC Headquarters on Monday, where representatives from State Urban Development Department answered their queries about PMAY and its implementation methodologies.
“Determining the eligible beneficiaries of the project has been a confusing issue, so far. The project guidelines mandate that homes will be provided to those who do not own one anywhere in the nation, but that constitutes a substantial part of the population. Councillors are yet to understand whether everybody living in rented houses will be eligible for the project, or is there a distinction,” stated Mayor Asha lakra.
She further added, “distributing application forms is another hindrance we are facing. We neither have the fund to print and circulate them, nor the manpower to receive and process them. Even if these forms are published online, as we have been asked to do, it will be difficult for those living in slums to access them without any help.”
Resolving these complaints, UDD Project Engineer for PMAY Dinesh Kumar Dwivedi said, “As of now, a demand survey is being conducted to ascertain slum dwellers along with renters belonging to Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and lower Income Group (lIG), who will be eligible for availing the benefits of the project. This is to find out how many houses are required, or demanded, within Ranchi. Action plan to execute PMAY will be formulated after this report is submitted, and only then will the funds be released for Centre.”
But the last submission date less than a week away, RMC is now looking for an extension. "I don't believe there should be a deadline in such a significant project. We have three off days between today and the deadline, and it is impossible to complete the survey within this timeframe. We will be asking the department to extend the predestined deadline by a month," said Deputy Mayor Sanjeev Vijaywargia.
UDD has also asked the Centre for some time; we have been asked to begin work and send a letter demanding extension, informed Dwivedi.
But the unfruitful survey conducted three years ago under Rajiv Awas Yojana for allotting homes to slum-dwellers instigated uproar from the councillors. "We promised slum-dwellers of our area that they will get homes by 2015 under Rajiv Awas Yojana, but the survey conducted for it holds no importance in recent turn of events. We will be conducting the activity once again, only for a different project," exclaimed councillor of ward-30 Om Prakash.
In reply to this, Dwivedi said, "RAY covered slum-dwellers only but PMAY extends its benefits to those belonging to EWS and lIG groups too. As far as the survey conducted for the former project is concerned, it is not to be discarded, but updated. New beneficiaries will only have to be added to the older survey," Dwivedi said.