State Government’s PMAY(G) ‘House to House Survey’ programme – a flop show

The much hyped 'House to House Survey' programme for PMAY(G) scheme implementation initiated by Assam government turned out to be a 'flopped show' as majority of Panchayat and Rural Development (P&RD) officials declined to spend night at the houses constructed under the ambitious housing scheme to BPL families. The reason cited by officials not to spend night at PMAY(G) house was the houses have poor facilities.

The 'House to House Survey' programme is part of the monitoring mechanism for implementation of the scheme developed in the state. It was alleged that most of the P&RD officials spent night at hotels and at other housing facilities instead of spending the night in PMAY (G) houses.

As part of the monitoring mechanism for implementation of the PMAY (Gramin) scheme, Assam government had recently ordered all BDOs and other top officials of P&RD department to assess the ground reality of houses constructed under the scheme. Ministers and MLAs took the initiative in the 'House to House Survey' drive.

On Saturday last, Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development Naba Kumar Doley took part in the new 'House to House Survey' programme initiated by the state government to assess the ground reality of the PMAY-G scheme.

Minister Doley in a bid to boost the morale of his departmental staff got personally involved in the survey and spent Saturday night in a newly-constructed house under PMAY-G and owned by below poverty level beneficiary Munindra Das at village No.1 Chengapara under Sipajhar Development Block of Darrang district.

The effort is also to assess the quality of work of the houses and also to know whether the other government facilities, including a free LPG connection under PM Ujjala has reached the PMAY-G beneficiary under reference.

Over 1.6 lakh pucca houses have been proposed to be built for the poor during 2016-17 under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) for Assam. It is said that the initiative as a major step forward in bringing qualitative change in the lifestyle of the downtrodden people of Assam.

PMAY(G) will provide an environmentally safe and secure pucca house to every rural household by 2022 in the state. The Yojana proposed "Housing for All" in rural areas of the state with a target to complete 1,64,245 pucca houses in its first phase.

The unit cost for these houses has been increased to Rs 1.3 lakh and further through convergence of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and MGNREGA scheme.