The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has flagged irregularities in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) in Madhya Pradesh – with allegations ranging from the state government handing out Rs 15 crore in assistance to over 1,500 ineligible beneficiaries to more than 8,000 beneficiaries getting priority over more deprived beneficiaries from the SC and ST communities. The public housing programme was introduced by the Centre in 2016 as an instrument of poverty alleviation. Its stated aim was to provide pucca houses with basic amenities to those living in kutcha and dilapidated houses in rural areas by 2022. The CAG report, tabled in the Madhya Pradesh assembly on February 8, looks into the scheme's implementation from 2016-21, when 26,28,525 houses were sanctioned and Rs 24,723 crore was paid to beneficiaries. Of the sanctioned houses, 82.35 percent were completed, the report states. Though the scheme mandates that households with a vehicle or fishing boat be excluded, the CAG report flagged that "2,037 beneficiaries had two/three/four wheeler before sanction of a house in the 10 audited districts”. "We further noticed that CEO, JP (janpad parishad) released PMAY-G assistance of Rs 15.66 crore to 1,555 out of 2,037 ineligible beneficiaries," the report states. The report flagged that houses were "sanctioned twice to the same beneficiary in 64 cases. In 98 cases, one house was sanctioned to the actual beneficiary and another to his/her family members who were not identified for the scheme”. “There is no system to alert in the portal to identify duplication of beneficiaries. Duplicate beneficiaries should have been deleted instead of providing assistance twice or diversion of assistance to family members,” it states. According to guidelines, the SC, ST and minority communities are to be given priority in the beneficiary list, but the CAG, which audited 60 gram panchayats, noticed that "out of total 18,935 sanctioned cases, 8,226 beneficiaries superseded the more deprived beneficiaries in the priority list and were sanctioned house earlier than them”. The CAG report flagged delays in disbursing instalments to beneficiaries which led to a delay in constructing the homes. The amount is usually sent to the beneficiary in four instalments based on the stage of construction. The CAG report noted the "first instalment of assistance amount was released with a delay ranging between one day and four years to 53 per cent (13,18,233) beneficiaries”. It noted that the funds were not released to 14 per cent (3,48,319) beneficiaries, while only 33 per cent (8,38,324) beneficiaries were provided the funds on time. The CAG also flagged that a "PMAY-G house was sanctioned to minors in 90 cases and benefit was provided to their relatives”, whose names were not in the list. The scheme implementation and monitoring is carried out through a web-based transactional electronic service delivery platform called Awaas Soft. The CAG scrutinised the Awaas Soft data to state that "name of the beneficiaries were not mentioned in 1,246 instances" and in 950 cases, the benefit was released. "This indicates lack of monitoring by the CEO of concerned janpad parishad and zila parishad who sanctioned the benefit despite non-availability of name of the beneficiary," the report states. Furthermore, the framework of the scheme stipulates that "allotment of house shall be made jointly in the name of husband and wife except in the case of a widow/unmarried/separated person”. The CAG noted the "CEOs of concerned ZPs violated the framework" and "allotted 12,66,815 (50.17 per cent) out of 25,24,951 houses to male beneficiaries”.
