Pradhan calls upon Giriraj to create Awaas portal for the inclusion of qualified people of Odisha

Bhubaneswar 5 August : Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday asked his cabinet partner Giriraj Singh to permit Odisha to transfer the information of eligible beneficiaries from the rural housing portals to the Awaas portal.

In the letter he demanded that Giriraj let the Odisha government to transfer the information of those who are eligible to benefit from the the rural housing portals to PWL of Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) by allowing the Awaas+ window to include eligible families The transfer of data opens the door to an existence of dignity for the most deprived of the homeless in desperate of need of accommodation in Odisha, he said.Pradhan also stressed the need for a rigorous surveillance of the whole process to ensure that no beneficiary who is eligible is excluded.

In Odisha approximately 27 lakh families are registered under PMAY-G.However the Odisha government has been unable to meet its obligations in terms of the completion of survey to identify of eligible families as well as geo-tagging of households and the including of eligible families, the exclusion of non-eligible beneficiaries, and the linking of Aadhar and details of job cards of households that are eligible.

However, he said, the state government claims that about 7 lakh families are exempted from the program.The minister of education has announced the results of investigation conducted by the department of rural development in the implementation of PMAY-G in Odisha "It is heartbreaking to realize that of the target of 8,17,513 houses based on the completed Awaasand lists in the financial year 2021-22 Odisha government has deliberately and in a way disproportionately concentrated on districts in which the ruling party held an overwhelming voting share" he claimed.

However, the reality is that the state is facing the unique problem of natural disasters and the majority of rural households are situated in remote areas in districts with large tribal populations.These issues are often an obstacle to ensuring the availability of housing for everyone, he stated.

Theres a requirement for thorough screening to avoid the possibility of duplicates of beneficiaries in the PMAY-G scheme and the state housing program, he added.bbm/uk .