It could well be called, with due apologies to the NobelLaureate, A House for Mr Doloi but for a small anomaly. Almost everyone inSalboni block of West Medinipur district awaiting houses under the government’sIndira Awas Yojana is a Mr Doloi, and almost everyone gets a house. Or, well,almost.
But over to Mr Doloi ” or Gopal Doloi of Radhakantapurvillage ” for now. “I got Rs 35,000 in two instalments to build a house underIAY. I started construction after receiving the first instalment, but thesecond instalment was delayed by a year and half. So I borrowed money andfinished the construction. “I paid off the debt after receiving the secondinstalment later,” he says. It took Doloi three months to build his house. “ButRs 35,000 was not enough to build a house. It cost me an additional Rs 7,000,”he adds. While Doloi, along with severalother IAY beneficiaries, took his complaint to the panchayat about the delay ingetting money under the public welfare scheme, he is hardly alone. When itcomes to Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), each panchayat in Salboni reaches aconsensus: the fund allotted is late, and never ever enough.
Block development officer of Salboni, Jayanta Biswas raisesanother problem: Kolkata has stopped releasing funds under IAY to the district.Why? Biswas reasons that they could not utilise the funds properly in hisblock. “This year, only 55 percent of funds have been utilised so far,” hesays. “We give two instalments for the scheme, and since the first instalmentwas not properly utilised there is a delay in disbursing the second instalment.“The state has ceased funds to the district.”
Like a tennis player, Subroto Doloi, secretary of grampanchayat number 8, Gormal, lobs the ball to the other court. Problems in IAYarise, he says, primarily due to the way beneficiaries spend the moneyallocated to them. “Some people either spend it on repairing existing houses oron other requirements. But IAY guidelines clearly state that a beneficiary hasto build a new house,” he says. Whilethe IAY guidelines say a beneficiary has to build a brick house with the fundsallocated, most villagers opt for mud houses to keep cost within check, thoughit soars nevertheless.
At times, after the first instalment reaches beneficiaries,the panchayat reviews the progress and forwards the details to the BDO, whothen prepares to release the second instalment, Doloi says. The funds aretransferred from the block directly to the beneficiary’s accounts to preventmisappropriation. “The beneficiary is required to have a bank account and landto build the house on,” Salboni BDO Jayanta Biswas says.
According to Biswas, a big hindrance in getting money underIAY is erratic documentation. “We don’t get reports from gram panchayats ontime. That holds up allocation of instalments, and the decision on the nextcourse of action,” he says. But Biswas is confident that the pending work underIAY will be done by the end of the year.
