Patna, Oct. 13: The rural development department in Bihar has approved a Rs 9.41 crore pilot project that aims to curb corruption in implementation of Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) in select 22 blocks spread over five districts.
The districts where the project would be implemented are Madhubani, West Champaran, Saharsa, Nalanda and Buxar. The project entails setting up a dedicated cell for monitoring IAY implementation, the use of satellite imaging of houses being constructed under the scheme, improvement in existing system of maintaining IAY beneficiary waitlist, technical hand-holding of beneficiaries and physical monitoring of the houses being constructed under this scheme.
At present, there is no separate set-up for the monitoring of IAY and existing field employees, who are already overloaded with a variety of work, monitor it. It hampers the quality of monitoring. It also adversely affects the target of completing sanctioned houses within the stipulated time of six months.
The pilot project aims to set up a dedicated cell, which would be manned by trained professionals and whose main task would be to keep a tab on the developments taking place in the implementation of IAY and to generate reports on a periodic basis. One of the most innovative aspects of the pilot project pertains to satellite imaging of under-construction houses under IAY on a periodical basis. The project entails taking photographs every two months and uploading them on a dedicated website so that departmental bosses could monitor the progress on field without wasting time in physical verification.
As far as improving the existing system of maintaining the waitlist of beneficiaries is concerned, the pilot project aims for automatic update of the list. At present, there is no automatic system of updating the list. One has to go through lengthy documents for deleting names of IAY beneficiaries. Under the new system, such names would be deleted automatically making things easier both for policy makers and field staff as far as selection of beneficiaries in a given year is concerned.
Technical hand-holding of beneficiaries, a component of the pilot project, aims to provide necessary information to beneficiaries about the scheme. This is to curb the influence of middlemen, ensuring proper use of funds given to the beneficiaries, equipping them with the knowledge about use of environment-friendly construction material and creating a pool of local persons whose services would be taken in construction work.
The project also talks of an incentive for those who complete their houses within the stipulated time of six months.
