PMAY scam? Realtor tricks senior citizen of Rs 52K, kin seek justice

Chennai

A senior citizen couple M Solaimuthu (80) and Panchavarnam (74) of Seeranatham village of Alathur Taluk in Perambalur had applied for assistance under PMAY for the construction of a house in the financial year 2017-18. When they approached officials for due instalments, they were reportedly told that they had already received two instalments together of Rs 52,714 (dated April 21, 2018 and June 1, 2018).

The shocked couple immediately narrated the incident to their grandson P Ulaganathan, a BE Mechanical graduate. He too, approached the officials, who told him that the funds were credited into the account. Ulaganathan smelt something fishy, and submitted a petition with the District Collector, seeking his intervention.

The Collector sent the petition to the police who redirected the Revenue Department to look into it, but in vain. “I submitted the petition 40 times since 2018. However, with no development, I put in an RTI application and found that one of our neighbours, S Selvam, a small-time realtor had obtained the funds and the money was credited into the account of his wife Malathi Selvam. He made use of our similar names to trick us,” Ulaganathan said.

The BE graduate added that Selvam had taken a photograph in front of the construction site when no one from the original beneficiary was available and tricked officials to attach his wife’s passbook into the beneficiary Solaimuthu’s documents.

The officials had obtained one of the family member’s accounts linked with the documents and Selvam used it, he added. He also said officials later promised to correct the error but the promise has not been fulfilled till date.

When DT Next contacted the then BDO Alayamani he claimed to have forgotten about it and said he was transferred from Alathur Taluk last month. This newspaper again called up the present BDO Muralidharan, who said he was not aware of the issue and promised to look into it.