Disbursement deadline for housing scheme

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 18 NOV: The Malda district administration has set 30 November 2009 as a deadline and asked all gram panchayat pradhans to disburse the funds for Ashray, a new state government-sponsored housing scheme, to the selected beneficiaries, within the stipulated time.

Following the Central government's, Indira Awas Yojona, the state government has launched the new Ashray scheme, in this financial year, for poor families.

Besides families belonging to the below poverty line (BPL) category, genuinely poor people, who are incidentally not listed in the BPL, will be entitled to get assistance for housing, under the same project. The selected beneficiaries will be getting Rs 35,000 in two installments, through their bank accounts.

The Malda district administration has targeted to select at least five beneficiaries at each gram panchayats. In Malda, there are 146 gram panchayats. Besides, the Malda Zilla Parishad (MZP) will also implement 171 Ashray scheme separately.

The additional executive officer(AEO) of the MZP, Mr Kajal Banerjee and the Chanchal sub divisional officer, Mr Subho Mukherjee and other officials, held a meeting with all gram panchayat pradhans of six blocks in Chanchal yesterday, to review all the Central and state government-sponsored schemes. Besides Ashray, the district officials specially stressed the need for rapid implementation of the Indira Awas Yojona, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and sanitation.

The AEO, MZP, Mr Kajal Banerjee said: “We have set a dead line 30 November and asked all gram panchayat pradhans to disburse the funds allotted for Ashray to the selected beneficiaries following the guidelines”.

“If any gram panchayat fails to meet the deadline, we will stop allotment of funds for other government programmes including the salary for the employees working in the gram panchayat," Mr Banerjee added.