Verify genuineness of PMAY beneficiaries receiving houses: HC

CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court directed the State government to pass instructions within six weeks to the district Collectors to take action for verifying the records, and genuineness of the allotment of houses to the beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Gramin (PMAY - G) scheme and to take action against erring officials who allotted houses to the ineligible beneficiaries.

The bench of Justice D Krishnakumar and Justice TV Thamilselvi passed the direction on hearing a petition filed by P Shakespeare. The petitioner, a resident of Ariyalur, prayed for a direction to the Ariyalur district administration to take action against the district panchayat secretary for the illegal allotment of houses and their misappropriations, based on the petitioner's representation dated December 6, 2021.

Recording the submissions, the judges noted there so many petitions are coming to the court with the same allegations and suo-motu impleaded the Secretary to Government, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, and passed a direction to the officer that he shall issue necessary instructions to all the district Collectors concerned to give pivotal importance to this issue and take necessary action for verifying the records, genuineness of the allotment of houses to beneficiaries under the PMAY.

“The district Collectors shall verify the allotments to call for fund utilisation under the scheme and allotment of houses to those beneficiaries in each village panchayat by nominating responsible officers not below the rank of Revenue Divisional Officer (RD0) to find out whether there is any irregularity and if any such deviation/illegality/irregularity is noted, the District Collectors concerned shall take necessary disciplinary action against those erring officials,” the court ruled.