Lokmat News Network
Aurangabad, Feb 7:
The Central Government's PMAY housing scheme failed to get implemented in the city successfully. Hence the state Urban Development Department (UDD) principal secretary, divisional commissioner Sunil Kendrekar, district collector Sunil Chavan and Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator A K Pandey have been ordered to submit their explanations over delay in implementing the PMAY before the Lok Sabha's standing committee on February 9. Meanwhile, the divisional commissioner has immediately settled the PMAY proposal ordering the district collector to implement the housing scheme at Chikalthana, Harsul and Teesgaon. The process to the land allotment to beneficiaries will be completed before February 8.
It may be noted that the MP Imtiaz Jaleel has raised the issue of PMAY in the Lok Sabha. He said that the AMC administration invited the applications and received around 80,000 applications online from the PMAY aspirants. However, due to non-cooperation between the divisional commissioner, district collector and AMC commissioner, not a single beneficiary could get the shelter. In response to it, the Central Government issued the notices and asked the above officials to submit their explanations before the committee on Feb 9.
The allotment of the land for PMAY was to be undertaken by the district administration, but due to the difference of opinion between the AMC and the district administration, the scheme could not proceed further. The scheme requires 400 hectares of land. Meanwhile, the scheme will now be implemented in phases as per the availability of the land. The civic chief has suggested that a large pool of land is available.
The Aurangabad Zoological Park is going to come up in Mitmita. The ruling party members of the outgoing civic body insisted implementation of PMAY near the park. This was the reason why the then municipal commissioner and
the district collector okayed the proposal. The motive behind it was that the ruling party members wanted to award the contract to the contractor of their choice. However, when the issue came to light, it was decided to implement PMAY at Teesgaon. Meanwhile, two years got wasted in deciding whether the residential blocks should be constructed by AMC or MHADA. As a result, the scheme remained only on paper and could not proceed further.