WELFARE HOMES

Patna, June 14: For the first time in Bihar, over seven lakh beneficiaries of a welfare scheme would be delivered the benefits on a single day.

If all goes according to plan, the 7.37 lakh targeted beneficiaries of the Indira Awas Yojana scheme would get the first instalment of the amount on August 27 this year.

Under the scheme, the cost of which is borne jointly by the Centre and the state, a beneficiary is given Rs 45,000 for constructing a pucca dwelling unit. While Rs 30,000 is given as the first instalment, the second is released after completion of a part of the house.

According to the state government plan, special camps would be organised in all 534 blocks on August 27 this year in which over seven lakh beneficiaries would be given passbooks of the bank account in which the first instalment would be deposited. Chief minister Nitish Kumar is expected to take part in one of the camps.

To ensure that the necessary groundwork for selecting the beneficiaries is done in a transparent manner, chief secretary Anup Mukerji recently wrote letters to all the nine divisional commissioners explaining the purpose of the move and also the work that needs to be carried out within a fixed time- frame before organising the camps.

Work on fixing the target of the number of beneficiaries in every panchayat has to be completed by June 15. The lists giving details about the number of beneficiaries in a given panchayat have to be displayed at public places between June 16 and 18. Selection of beneficiaries has to be completed between June 19 and 21. To verify that selection has been done from the list of beneficiaries, field officials would get time from June 22 to 28. Verification work would be followed by the publication of the list of beneficiaries from June 29 to 30.

Special camps would be organised in panchayats between July 10 and August 22 during which their bank accounts would be opened.

“Our goal is to weed out corruption from implementation of the Indira Awas Yojana scheme in the state. Having fixed the time limit for every phase of work and ensuring that everything is done in a transparent manner, we hope that beneficiaries would get the benefits without paying any kickback at any level,” rural development minister Nitish Mishra told The Telegraph. The department is in charge of implementing the housing scheme.

The department has already sent a fund of Rs 3335.9 crore to the districts for the current fiscal during which a target of constructing 7,37,486 dwelling units has been fixed. Of this fund, the Centre has contributed Rs 2,501 crore while the remainder has come from the state’s share.