Government committed to provide houses to all deprived sections

The Minister of State for Rural Development Shri Ram Kripal Yadav on August 3 informed the Lok Sabha that according to the Socio Economic and Caste Census, 2011 (SECC, 2011), out of 17.97 crore rural households 5.40 crore households have been identified as landless deriving major part of their income from manual and casual labour. Replying to a written question on houses being provided to rural poor, he said that Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G), restructured from erstwhile Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) w.e.f 1st April, 2016, aims at providing a pucca house with basic amenities to all in rural areas of the country.

The beneficiaries under PMAY-G comprise all houseless households and households living in zero/ one or two kutcha wall and kutcha roof houses as per SECC, 2011 data, and as verified by the Gram Sabha. He said that the scheme is being implemented by the States/UTs as per the programme guideline/framework for Implementation. Some instances of irregularities in scheme implementation have been reported which are mainly related to misappropriation of funds, allotment of houses to ineligible persons, release of funds to some other person’s account, bribe seeking and non-release of instalments in time etc.

The Minister said that with regard to the complaints received in the Ministry of Rural Development through CPGRAMS or otherwise, the same are forwarded to the respective State Government for their redressal and furnish the Action Taken Report to the Ministry under intimation to the complainant within one month of receipt of the complaint. States can also use the services of Ombudsman under MGNREGA to dispose of the grievances and reported incidents of irregularities under PMAY-G.