As many as nine panchayat secretaries have been suspended in Tiruvannamalai district following allegations of irregularities in the implementation of the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (housing scheme).
Alleging a major scam, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee working president and Arani MP M.K. Vishnu Prasad on Saturday said he had filed a case against the project director of Tiruvannamalai district in the Lok Ayukta but there was no proper response for his petition.
Tiruvannamalai Collector K. S. Kandasamy, when contacted, told The Hindu, “We have suspended nine panchayat secretaries in connection with this allegation.” However, he added that while the total allotment of houses under the scheme in the district was 33,000, issues pertaining to (wrongful) beneficiaries have cropped up in a very few cases.” A total of 20,000 houses were completed under the PMAY and Green House scheme in the last three years, he said.
Mr. Vishnu Prasad told The Hindu that in February, he submitted a memorandum to Tiruvannamalai Collector, alleging that several crore rupees were being siphoned off through malpractices.
“Without verifying the data, he said that the beneficiaries are being allotted as per the Socio Economic Caste Census data. I urged him to check the records completely,” said Mr. Prasad.
He alleged that there were several hundred cases where the money meant for actual beneficiaries was being diverted to those with similar names.
“For example, in Ozhappakkam, Kosappattu village, instead of V. Amsa, wife of Veliyappan, the house was built for A. Amsa under the PMAY. Similarly, in Vandavasi block, Kilnarma panchayat, the data says that K. Govindan and T. Ranganayaki had benefited from the scheme but yet no houses were built and these two people were not found at all. In Kayalkottai panchayat in Jawadhu Hills, Settai Rajan is the actual beneficiary but the PMAY house is built for Settai Govindhan. There are about 350 such cases in Jawadhu Hills block itself,” he alleged.
He provided details of at least 68 such instances in several panchayats in the Jawadhu Hills. Mr. Prasad said since the names need not match in the bank account and there is no requirement of geo-tagging, anyone can take a photo standing in front of a house and upload it as proof. “This flaw is being used widely and in one union in Jawadhu Hills, there are such mismatches in around 800 houses,” he said.
TTV seeks probe
AMMK general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran on Saturday called upon the Central and State governments to take immediate action on reports of alleged irregularities in the implementation of PMAY.
In a series of tweets, he stated that a proper probe should be carried out against those who had acted without being conscientious in a scheme meant for the welfare of the poor.