Ranchi, February 6: Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Monday met Union Minister for rural development Giriraj Singh in New Delhi.
The Chief Minister urged the Central Government to provide houses to 8, 37, 222 families registered under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin. The Chief Minister said that all the registered beneficiaries are poor and it is very important to provide housing to them. The Chief Minister requested the Union Minister to take an early decision in this matter and sanction houses for the poor.
The Chief Minister urged the Union Minister to release the outstanding amount of Jharkhand under the 15th Finance Commission and also discussed the reduction in the amount under MNREGA in the Union Budget 2023-23.
Earlier, the Chief Minister had written a letter to Union Minister Giriraj Singh in November 2022 to provide housing to the registered families under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin Awas Plus scheme.
Through the letter, the Chief Minister had submitted that out of 10,35,895 families listed for the state of Jharkhand under Awas Plus, the physical target was given to only 4,03,504 units in the financial year 2021-22. Still 6,32,391 eligible families could not get the benefit of housing.
The Chief Minister had said that 2,03,061 families have been removed from the list of families registered under Awas Plus by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. Most of these families are such that they are eligible for housing, but before the year 2019, due to wrong entry by the local workers, these families are being deprived of housing.
Under the Awas Plus scheme, a physical target of 6,32,391 should be allocated for the state of Jharkhand in the financial year 2022-23. 2,03,061 families removed from Awas Plus by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India should be provided the facility of re-verification.
On the other hand, Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam had also written a letter to the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India in this regard in January 2023, urging it to provide housing to the families registered under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin Awas Plus.
The meeting was also attended by Jharkhand chief secretary Sukhdev Singh, secretary rural development department, Shailesh Kumar, finance secretary Ajay Kumar Singh and secretary land resources, Ajay Tirkey among others.