Moina Dey is a mother of two girls. One of them, aged 23, is physically-challenged while the other is 18. They are native of Dangabori village under Mayong Development Block of Morigaon district, some 63 kilometres from Guwahati. Life has been tough for her for years together. However, May – has become a special and memorable day for her. After months of efforts, she has finally entered her dream home—a pucca house allotted to her under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY G).
She is overwhelmed today. “Earlier, I would go through a lot of anxiety during heavy rains while negotiating the movement of my elder daughter in the kutcha house. I feel I am much more secure now than ever before,” she tells Asom Barta.
In the same district and development block under the Baghjap Gaon Panchayat in the village Dayan Belguri, Noniprabha Saikia and Nivedita Saikia have also organised a house-warming ceremony while celebrating the allocation of their houses under the same scheme.
Noniprabha, too, had seen difficult times, especially after losing her husband in 2007, and getting her only daughter married. The difficulties mounted during the rainy seasons while living alone in a kutcha house, with hardly any helping hand. “When I received the first instalment of ₹ 32,500 under the Scheme, I started dreaming of a time to welcome my daughter to this pucca house whenever she would come to stay here,” says Noniprabha sharing her aspiration.
Some 117 kilometres away from this village on the northern side of the Brahmaputra is Ghorabandha village under Sipajhar Development Block. Here Akramul Haque and Anowar Hussain are celebrating for the same reason.
The Central Government has targeted “Housing for All” by 2024, and accordingly the Panchayat and Rural Development Department has been executing them in an expeditious manner under PMAY G.
Jamini Nath of Paschim Chuba Village under Sipajhar Development Block, a beneficiary under the scheme, narrates his hope of how this pucca house will change the fortune of his two sons. “For them, focusing on their studies during the monsoon was always a challenge. Now, with a pucca roof over their head, electricity, a latrine, and a gas connection in place, they need not worry about rain water seeping in,” he tells this newsletter.
Under the Scheme, ₹ 1.30 lakh of assistance is provided to beneficiaries for each house. They are provided ₹ 90.95 per day of unskilled labour under the MGNREGS, while an additional aid for construction of toilets of up to ₹ 12,000 is provided under Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) in collaboration with MGNREGS or other schemes. Payments are made electronically to bank accounts or post office accounts that are linked to Aadhaar.
Beneficiaries are identified using parameters from Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 and verified by Gram Sabhas besides based on a special amendment of September 25, 2020, meant for Assam.
Executive Engineer of Darrang Zilla Parishad (DZP) Bhaben Barman says that they inspect the construction process while convenor of gaon panchayats make use of geo-tagging technique during construction. Later, certified engineers inspect the construction quality of these houses.
CEO of DZP Manas Das says, “With the use of direct benefit transfer, we have managed to do away with the role of any middlemen. The entire responsibility of the construction now lies with the beneficiaries. He/She can choose the material required for the construction of their residential units.” In Darrang district, 71,556 residential units have been allotted while 47,955 units have already been constructed, Das informs this reporter.
Morigaon Zila Parishad CEO Khitish Pegu, citing statistics, says that his district has been allotted 92,072 units under the scheme while 56,937 residential units have already been built. “We focus on timely release of all instalments and strict compliance with the quality of construction,” Pegu says.
In Chamatiapara of Burhinagar Gaon Panchayat under Darrang resides Sabya Kalita. Having lost her husband in 2016, Kalita, at the age of 66, now finds a new reason to be happy in the form of her pucca house. Having suffered substantially in the last rainy season, she says a pucca house was the last thing on her mind. This year, though, she is praying to the weather gods to keep floods at bay, and instead hopes to have a good crop alongside a bountiful produce from her fishery.
