AGARTALA, Sep 10 (TIWN): State BJP Chief Biplab Deb was shy to attack the chief patron of all corruptions related to Central Govt fund siphoning on Friday evening Press Conference held at Agartala. Manik Sarkar’s pet IAS, IPS officer lobbies and close aides deserve awards for best ‘corruption planners’ as tainted IAS officials like GSG Ayyangar always invent innovative ways to rob Central funds. PMAY is no exception as CPI-M Govt, Ayyangar’s team and party cadres ensured that over 60% names are fake of the listed 42,896 poor families under urban areas have been selected. CPI-M administration made sure that majority PMAY entries are fake so that Central Govt funds worth hundreds of crores against these fake names can be pocketed by CPI-M. After massive scams in almost all the centrally sponsored schemes in Tripura , Manik Sarkar led CPI-M Govt has once again involved in gross irregularities the PM Modi's dream project of 'Housing For All By 2022' under which Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. State BJP Chief Biplab Deb met Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu to cancel CPI-M’s list of 42,896 PMAY beneficiaries and start a new list by dispatching a central delegation.

Neither state gov't nor any of the municipal authorities have made any attempt of public notification through local newspapers and TV channels to make the people aware of this scheme. Rather , all the municipalities/Nagar panchayats have acted as per the instructions given by the CPI-M party offices to manipulate the transparency of the scheme simply to introduce Party Raj in this dream project.

It is to be mentioned here that on 17th June 2015 the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave its approval for the launch of “Housing for All by 2022”. Manik Sarkar led CPI-M Govt's corruption planners turned PMAY into another goldmine for robbing Central funds.

The mission seeks to address the housing requirement of urban poor including slum dwellers through following programme verticals :-

a) Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with participation of private developers using land as a resource;

b) Promotion of affordable housing for weaker section through credit linked subsidy;

c) Affordable housing in partnership with Public & Private sectors and d) Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction or enhancement. CPI-M however turned this central scheme into another corruption den by forceful collection of  property tax(?) imposed upon them even though no mention of 'property tax' in Central Govt guidelines.

But in Tripura state gov't is only implementing the fourth vertical of the  scheme" Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction or enhancement." Moreover, as per the PMAY guidelines in Phase I the last date of receiving the application for this scheme is 30th June 2016 but in Tripura after 20th June no one is allowed to apply for it.

A key feature of this scheme is that under the Credit Linked Interest Subsidy component, interest subsidy of@ 6.5% on housing loans upto Rs 6lakh  availed upto a tenure of 15 years will be provided to Economically Weaker Section(EWS) /Lower Income Group(LIG) categories, Interest Subsidy Calculated on NPV basis at a discount rate of 9%.  Central assistance at the rate of Rs.1.5 lakh per house for EWS category will be provided under the Affordable Housing in Partnership and Beneficiary-led individual house construction or enhancement.

Under Credit Link Subsidy Central Assistance under different components will be released to the States/UTs after the approval of Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee(CSMC) and with concurrence of the Integrated Finance Division (IFD) of the Union Ministry . Central share would be released in 3 instalments of 40%,40% and 20% each.

The scheme will be implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme except the credit linked subsidy component, which will be implemented as a Central Sector Scheme.

The scheme will cover the entire urban area consisting of 4041 statutory towns with initial focus on 500 Class I cities and it will be implemented in three phases as follows, viz,:-

Phase-I (April 2015 – March 2017) to cover 100 Cities to be selected from States/UTs as per their willingness;

Phase – II (April 2017 – March 2019) to cover additional 200 Cities and

Phase-III (April 2019 – March 2022) to cover all other remaining Cities.

However, there will be flexibility in covering number of cities in various phases and inclusion of additional cities may be considered by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation in case there is demand from States and cities and have capacity to include them in earlier phases. Credit linked subsidy component of the scheme would be implemented across the country in all statutory towns.

A Technology Sub-mission under the Mission has been targeted to be set up to facilitate adoption of modern, innovative and green technologies and building material for faster and quality construction of houses. The Technology Sub-Mission will also work on the following aspects:

i) Design & Planning

ii) Innovative technologies & materials iii) Green buildings using natural resources and

 iv) Earthquake and other disaster resistant technologies .

Pradhan Matri Awas Yojona- scheme popularly termed as ' Housing for All by 2022' is aimed at providing 2.95 crores of urban housing by 2022. It has been launched by PM Modi .

People who will be benefitted through this scheme will be homeless ones, poor urban people and belonging to EWS and LIG categories.

Salient features of the Guidelines of  PMAY (U) :-

1) A beneficiary family will comprise husband , wife and unmarried children. The beneficiary family should not own a pucca house ( an all weather dwelling unit) either in his/her name or I the name of any member of his/her family in any part of India

2) The activities required for preparation of Housing For All Plan of Action (HFAPo) will be funded by the Ministry in the ration of 75:25 and in case of North Eastern and special category states in the ratio of 90:10

3) A State Level Technical Cell(SLTC) with 5-10 professionals will be supported with the approval of CSMC . CSMC can increase the size of such cell on the requirement of State/UT.

4) City Level Technical Cell with 2-4 professionals depending on the size of the city and quantum of work will also be supported by the mission with approval of CSMCHowever, on 25th May 2016 Deputy Secretary to the Gov't of India , Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation , S K Valithan vide his letter No.N-11027/19/2015-HFA.1/Vol.2(FTS-13988) in the subject mentioned as ' Amendments in the Guidelines of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)-HFA(U) Mission ' categorically mentioned ," If the beneficiary has a pucca house with carpet area of 21 sq mt or semi-pucca house, lacking in one of the facilities (i.e., room, kitchen, toilet , bath or a combination of them ) , it may be taken up for enhancement subject to ULB/State ensuring safety of the house and adherence to following conditions :

1) The total carpet area after enhancement must not be less than 21 sq mt and must not be more than 30 sq mt

2) Enhancement shall mean addition of minimum carpet area of 9.0 square metres into the existing house with pucca construction of at least one habitable too or too with kitchen and/or bathroom and/or toilet conforming to NBC norms  

Interestingly , CPI-M local bodies have ao far been successful to register the names of their party cadres depriving many of the genuine beneficiaries of this scheme.

In Tripura nobody is aware about the scheme and many people also do not know about the online application for houses.

It is to be mentioned here that, many newspapers have reported about GSG Ayyangar’s  involvements in different corruptions which was going round the corner. During his earlier deputation term on inter-cadre deputation, Dr. Ayyangar, was repatriated to the state over his alleged involved in the timers scandal, which rocked the municipal administration department of Hyderabad.

The alleged corruption took place while Dr. Ayyangar was working as director, personnel and administration, Singareni Collieries Company Limited.  Dr. GSG was in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad and was reportedly responsible for purchasing the timers used for street lights at an exorbitant price compared to market rates.

Apart the Vigilance & Enforcement (V&E) probe into the timer scandal has nailed four IAS officers including G S G Ayyangar

The probe was initiated after the government ordered an inquiry into the purchase of 7,002 timer devices at an exorbitant price of Rs 8.12 crore by the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad.

The V&E has in its report has also recommended booking criminal cases against Ayyangar.

Nationally tainted GSG Ayyangar now is the right hand man of Manik Sarkar and set to become next Chief Secretary of Tripura.

State BJP Chief Biplab Deb pleaded with Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu to start fresh application process for PMAY so that everyone can apply directly to Central Govt bypassing Tripura’s corrupt Manik Sarkar Govt.

State BJP Chief Biplab Deb’s many meetings from  Rajnath Singh to Narendra Modi yet to fetch any positive outcomes like CBI investigations on various scams or imprisoning corruption master Tripura CM.

So, Biplab Deb may convene another dozen press conferences about his meetings with Union Ministers  but Tripura people will not be fooled by mere talks rather than actions by BJP led Central Govt.