Now Reading: West Bengal renames housing scheme, pays Rs 60,000 to 10 lakh families
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West Bengal renames housing scheme, pays Rs 60,000 to 10 lakh families
West Bengal has renamed its rural housing scheme Banglar Bari as Paschim Banga Awas and transferred the final instalment to 10,20,379 beneficiaries, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on August 6. Each beneficiary…
The Story in Brief
West Bengal has renamed its rural housing scheme Banglar Bari as Paschim Banga Awas and transferred the final instalment to 10,20,379 beneficiaries, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on August 6. Each beneficiary received Rs 60,000, taking the outlay above Rs 6,000 crore. The scheme provides Rs 1.20 lakh in two instalments to help build houses.
The beneficiaries are among 18 lakh families identified under the scheme during the previous Trinamool Congress government. The Hindu reports that central funding for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Grameen) was stopped after allegations of corruption and missing utilisation certificates. The State plans to release the first instalment to several lakh new beneficiaries after Durga Puja in October.
The Indian Opinion
The familiar political story is either that the scheme is pure welfare delivery or that every earlier beneficiary was tainted. Neither claim follows from the facts. The State must publish beneficiary lists, construction progress and utilisation records, especially after the Centre halted funding over alleged irregularities. The useful test is simple: how many of the 18 lakh approved families receive houses, and can the accounts match the money released?
Source: thehindu.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
