Around 150 villagers of Natanpur duped by GP member over PMAY promise: “We vote for this government in every election and still get denied basic facilities”

In the name of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), a village living in abject poverty has been duped by the local representatives of the gaon panchayat. This incident happened at the Natanpur Village under Jalalpur GP in the Kalain area of Cachar. The residents of this bordering village dwell without basic amenities and some even don’t have proper sheds over their heads. When these below-the-poverty-line villagers applied for PMAY, their local representatives asked them for cash but later refused any help or the home they dreamt of. 

The people living below the poverty line are subject to Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana or PMAY scheme by the central government. Launched by PM Narendra Modi, this scheme targeted to sanction subsidies to the beneficiaries who come under this scheme. The list of beneficiaries is produced by the local representatives or the gaon panchayat. Many a time the local representatives ask for money in return to get names enlisted. This is exactly what happened in the Natanpur Village.

The villagers of the Natanpur who lives in proximity to the Indo-Bangladesh border in Kalain have been denied basic housing facilities for many years. The gaon panchayat members promised them the subsidy many times but never fulfilled it. Those who can, have made houses out of mud and bamboo and shed made of tin, but many live in houses built out of paddy straws. Some houses don’t even have closed walls. The visuals are shocking enough and above that to imagine bearing this cold weather at night.

The villagers have been silent about this extortion of money and abandoning behaviours towards them. But now they decided enough was enough. They alleged that the panchayat member, Monilal Namasudhara charged the 150 families living in this village anywhere between 500 to 12000 rupees for getting their names enlisted in the PMAY beneficiaries list. Speaking about this barbaric greed of the GP member a villager said, “We are Schedule Caste people, when our men and our children go to work and come back with the daily wages in the evening, we go to buy rice and food for dinner. Living in those conditions we still managed to pay the GP member, to geo-tag our house to get the awas yojana. But when the list was declared, none of our names was mentioned”.

She also mentioned, “Our houses got washed away during the flood and we took shelter at the BSF camp, the panchayat or any elected representatives reached us. Be it the Indira Awas or now the Pradhan Mantri Awas, nothing reaches our village. Why are we denied the basic facilities when we cast our vote during the elections?”