Congress MP from Arani constituency M.K. Vishnu Prasad on Saturday alleged a major scam in the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY Housing Scheme) in Tiruvannamalai district in Tamil Nadu. He said he had filed a case against the Project Director in Tiruvannamalai district in Lok Ayukta, but there was no proper response to his petition.
Mr. Prasad told The Hindu that in February he submitted a memorandum to the Tiruvannamalai District Collector alleging that several crore rupees are being siphoned off through malpractices. “Without verifying the data, he said that the beneficiaries are being allotted as per the Socio Economic Caste Census data. I urged him to check the records completely,” said Mr. Prasad. He alleged that there are several hundred cases of the money meant for actual beneficiaries being diverted to those with ‘similar’ names.
“For example, in Ozhappakkam, Kosappattu Village, instead of V. Amsa wife of Veliyappan, the house was built for A Amsa under the PMAY. Similarly, in Vandavasi block, Kilnarma panchayat, the data says that K. Govindan and T. Ranganayaki, had benefited from the scheme but no houses were built and these two people were not found at all. In Kayalkottai panchayat in Jawadhu hills, Settai Rajan is the actual beneficiary but the PMAY house is built for Settai Govindhan. There are about 350 such cases in the Jawadhu hills block itself,” he alleged. He provided details of at least 68 such instances in several panchayats in Jawadhu hills.
Mr. Prasad said since the names need not match in the bank account and there is no requirement of ‘geo-tagging’, anyone can take a photo standing in front of a house and upload it as proof. “This flaw is being used widely and in one Union itself in Jawadhu Hills, there are such mismatches in around 800 houses,” he charged.
