GUWAHATI, Oct 13: “Deputy commissioners must consider the implementation of schemes like backlogged Indira Awas Yoja (IAY) and Prime Minister’s Awas Yoja (PMAY) as their moral responsibility which seek to provide houses to the poorest of poor in society. You must take up these schemes on priority basis and must ensure all beneficiaries get their houses within the stipulated time,” Chief Minister Sarbanda Sonowal said on Friday while reviewing the implementation of IAY and PMAY in the districts through a video conference with the deputy commissioners at his conference room at Jata Bhawan.
Directing the DCs to devote at least one hour daily to the IAY and PMAY schemes, Sonowal set March 31, 2018 as the deadline for completing the target of providing houses to the beneficiaries in all the districts of the state under these schemes. He also said that to generate competitive spirit among the DCs, those who perform best in timely implementation of IAY and PMAY schemes would be awarded by the State Government.
Saying that Prime Minister rendra Modi has accorded top priority to the PMAY scheme as the underprivileged section of society would be brought under the ambit of housing, Sonowal said that Assam cannot afford to lag behind in implementing the scheme and urged the DCs to take it up earnestly by persolly looking after the implementation in support with other officials of the district. When there is sufficient fund for the programme, no delay should be there in implementing the housing schemes, he said.
Referring to the Sivasagar district’s example where majority of intended beneficiaries under both IAY and PMAY schemes have received houses on time, Sonowal urged the Deputy Commissioners of other districts to take Sivasagar as their role model and follow the method adopted by DC Sivasagar for fast implementation of these schemes. Working as a team is very important to achieve any target and Sivasagar has proved that with their success, the Chief Minister said.
In the video conference, Sivasagar DC rayan Konwar elaborated the methods which were adopted for successful implementation of both IAY and PMAY in the district. He said that innovative steps like giving mason training to the beneficiaries, conducting awareness campaigns at all the development blocks, felicitating the successful beneficiaries who built their houses within stipulated time after getting payments, identifying the vendors for providing construction material by the district administration and ebling online payments for the purchased materials by the beneficiaries helped Sivasagar achieve its target in IAY and PMAY.
Additiol Chief Secretary of Panchayat and Rural Development Department MGVK Bhanu said that any abnormal expenditure in MGNREGA scheme must be checked by the Deputy commissioners as some Gaon Panchayats (GP) have shown very high expenditure whereas some others have shown very less. Any such discrepancy might be the result of corrupt practices and would attract attention of Government of India, he cautioned.
Legal Adviser to the Chief Minister Shantanu Bharali, Minister of State for P&RD Department ba Kumar Doley, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjay Lohia, Commissioner and Secretary of P & RD Department JB Ekka, Commissioner and Secretary to the Chief Minister Vishal Vasant Solanki were also present at the meeting, among others.