Denied PMAY aid after 4 years, couple stages protest

LUDHIANA: A city couple — Lal Jha and Meera Jha — on Wednesday staged a protest outside the Zone A office of the municipal corporation, alleging that their application for financial aid under the PM Awas Yojna (PMAY) was rejected on technical grounds by the officials after sitting on it for full four years.
The man claimed he had applied for the subsidy under the scheme for construction of house four years back, but now the officials are asking him to apply under the scheme for rural areas, saying his locality does not fall within the corporation limits.
However, senior deputy mayor Shyam Sunder Malhotra assured him of finding solution to his problem and said he would ask the mayor and the municipal commissioner to take action against the erring officials.
Giving details of his case, overlock worker Lal Jha said, "I had applied to avail Rs 1.5 lakh aid under the PM Awas Yojna, as I have a small plot in New Ashok Nagar at Jassian Road." He said when he had submitted the application, the civic body officials had advised him to start construction work to avail the subsidy. So, he took a loan of Rs 1 lakh from bank and started the construction work.
“But, even after four years, I have not received anything. The officers are now telling me verbally that his area is outside MC limits, so I should try again under the scheme for rural areas,” he said.
Interestingly, in January this year, the officials had issued a letter to the couple, which said since they had not started construction at the site as per the scheme’s condition, they would send the subsidy money back.
The senior deputy mayor, who heard the couple, said the officials should have got field verification done right after Jha applied for the aid four years ago. In all such cases, the officials should give in writing to the beneficiaries whether their sites fall within the corporation limits, instead of causing harassment to public at a later stage, he added.