Mohammad Junaid, 56, of Mahsaili village in Raniganj block of Bihar’s Araria district, claimed the first instalment way back in 2019 to construct a house for himself under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY), a central housing scheme for the rural poor. In four years, he hasn’t even laid the foundation. Now, he is facing a “certificate case” for not completing his house.
A certificate case is filed in a revenue court for recovery of government loan or grant.
Sugna Paswan (46) of Jamunia village in Chakia block of East Champaran district has been served with a similar notice for not completing his house despite claiming the second instalment.
Junaid and Paswan are among 71,000-odd beneficiaries of the PMAY in Bihar who have been served notices by the district authorities concerned either to complete the house or pay back the amount they claimed under the scheme.
“The prime objective of filing certificate cases is to make the beneficiaries complete the houses and get additional financial benefits. The strategy has yielded positive results, as many have started construction. However, the process to realise the instalments would be initiated against those who refused to wake up,” Bihar’s rural development department (RDD) minister Shravan Kumar said on Monday.
As per data of the rural development department, Madhupura district in Kosi region has the highest number of defaulters, who did not claim the second instalment despite receiving the initial amount of ₹40,000. “There are 4,619 beneficiaries, who did not wish to get the second instalment even after a gap of 18 months, and hence they are facing the case,” said a senior official of the RDD.
The East Champaran district administration has filed certificate cases against 2800 beneficiaries, some of whom then restarted the construction and claimed the second instalment, said a district official dealing with the scheme execution, adding that cases against those who started the construction were withdrawn.
Likewise, different block offices have filed certificate cases against 3,200 beneficiaries of PMAY in Patna.
Danapur block has initiated action against 400 beneficiaries for their failure to respond to the notices.
Citing the reports from the district, the RDD official said that construction on as many as 7,810 houses has been stopped as they had no legal heir after the death of actual beneficiaries. About 39,113 houses could not be built, as the original owners have migrated to other district or states for jobs. “We are awaiting clear-cut guidelines from the Centre to proceed on such cases,” he said.
Minister Shravan Kumar said he had already directed the officials to also take action against the panchayat level supervisors for PMAY, who fail to comply with the government instruction to ensure execution of the scheme on ground.
Under the scheme, a beneficiary of PMAY gets ₹1.20 lakh from the Centre in three equated instalments of ₹40,000 at different stages of construction. Besides, the house owner also get a reimbursement of ₹18,000 as labour charges under the MNREG scheme and ₹12,000 for construction of toilets under Lohia Swachha Bharat Scheme.
The minister said Bihar’s achievement in constructing houses under the PMAY is more than 95%. “We have been allotted a quota of building 37,04,228 houses since 2016-17 to 2021-22, barring 2018-19. In 2018-19, Bihar was not sanctioned any scheme under PMAY. So far, 35,21,890 houses have been built and occupied. We have identified over 23,000 people, who require houses under PMAY. Of them, 11,418 are landless. We are arranging plots or providing financial help to purchase land for building houses,” said Shravan Kumar.
