5 central teams to visit Bengal to probe corruption charges

According to state government sources, a total of 10 districts will be the focus of the visiting central teams in the second round. The 10 districts are Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Alipurduar, Murshidabad, Nadia, West Midnapore, East Burdwan, South 24 Parganas, East Midnapore and Malda. East Midnapore and Malda districts will be visited for the second time.

During their visit, members of the five central teams would also interact with local people and beneficiaries of the Centre’s scheme, said sources. Besides, they will also hold talks with the block development officers, sub-divisional officers and other PMAY implementing officials.

The Union ministry also requested the state government to make necessary arrangements and provide logistic support to the central teams, besides informing the districts of necessary action and providing documents sought by the teams, they said.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Raju Bista on Friday appealed to the people to reach out to the central teams if they have been a victim of the TMC’s “corruption”.
“The level of corruption in the allocation of PMAY in West Bengal is symptomatic of the systemic rot prevalent in the state under the TMC government.

West Bengal BJP has been repeatedly highlighting this issue and requesting for an investigation by the central agencies into these allegations of corruption,” Bista said in a statement. “Recently, I also reached out to the Hon’ble Minister of Rural Development Giriraj Singhji informing him about the high degree of corruption in the allocation of houses under the PMAY-Gramin scheme in our Darjeeling hills, Terai and Dooars region. I am happy to share that the Ministry of Rural Development has decided to depute 5 teams of National Level Monitors (NLMs), empanelled with the Ministry for conducting a detailed enquiry into the complaints related to irregularities under PMAY-G,” said Bista, the BJP MP from Darjeeling, in the statement.

“I request the victims and general public, NGO and Civil Society workers, academics, intellectuals, youths, members of SHGs, Samaj and other bodies to kindly reach out to the National Level Monitoring team to report any such irregularities that you may be aware of concerning the PMAY-Gramin scheme,” added the BJP MP. TMC leader Kunal Ghosh, said, “The BJP is sending such teams to malign the image of the state. Our government has already taken steps to remove the names of those who violated norms from the beneficiaries’ list. Instead of looking into the affairs in opposition-ruled states, the BJP should focus on its corruption in states ruled by them.”