STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Hailkandi MLA Anwar Hussain Laskar has said that the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) has been an abysmal failure and for that, the Mission Director should be placed under suspension, besides initiating an inquiry into the anomalies in his office.
Addressing the media in Guwahati on Monday, the AIUDF MLA said: “Under PMAY-U 57,364 houses have been approved from 1.2 lakh applicants in the State since the inception of the scheme in fiscal 2015-16. However, only 11 houses have been completed so far under the scheme in Assam. This is a total failure of the scheme. None – neither the State Urban Development Department nor the PMAY-U Mission Director – has laid importance on this scheme. Mission Director (MD) Sadnek Singh is working at his own whims with patronage from the Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary – pushing the scheme to such a plight. The MD rampantly spent the funds that came in from the Centre under the scheme, and now he’s not in a position to submit utilization certificates (UCs). Not a single penny has been received under PMAY-U in fiscal 2018-19 since utilization certificates of the funds received the previous year have not been submitted. There is no progress achieved in this fiscal under the mission. The Centre has been repeatedly asking the UDD Principal Secretary and the Mission Director for the submission of UCs, but to no avail.”
On the manpower front, Laskar said: “The Mission is going on amidst an acute shortage of manpower. It has only 32 employees in all against the requirement of 122 in the State. According to rules, every district should have at least four employees under the mission. However, the ground reality is such that 90 of the 122 posts under the mission have been lying vacant. There is no employee at all in some districts like Baksa, Hailakandi, Biswanath and Sonitpur. Even the 32 employees working under the mission have not been getting their remuneration regularly.”
Laskar said: “I did raise this issue with the UDD Minister and the Chief Minister. However, no action has been taken as yet to put everything in the mission in order. The failure on the part of the department has deprived economically the weaker section of urban dwellers of proper housing. If this is allowed, it will make a mockery of the slogan – housing for all by 2022. The need of the hour is immediate suspension of the Mission Director, besides initiating an inquiry into the anomalies in his office.”