PMAY scam: Second round of central inspection team in Bengal soon

A total of five central inspection teams from the Union Ministry of Rural Development will be visiting West Bengal shortly to probe the allegations of rampant corruption in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

This will be the second round of field inspection to be conducted by the central teams as already two teams have conducted similar inspections in East Midnapore and Malda districts last week.

The Union Ministry of Rural Development has already communicated to the state secretariat of Nabanna about this second round of field inspection.

In the second round of inspection, a total of 10 districts will be under focus, with each central field inspection team visiting two districts. The ten districts that will be under focus this time include Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Alipurduar, Murshidabad, Nadia, West Midnapore, East Burdwan, South 24 Parganas, East Midnapore and Malda, with the last two districts to be inspected for the second round since last week. The allegations of corruption in implementation of the PMAY scheme has been maximum in these two districts.

Besides interacting with the common people, the members of the five central field inspection teams will also interact with the block development officers, sub-divisional officers and the other PMAY implementing officials of these districts on this count.

The Union ministry has also requested the state government to make necessary arrangements and provide logistic support to the Central teams during the visit to the state besides informing the districts for necessary action and providing documents, etc, asked by the members of the teams.

In the PIL filed at the division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, BJP's Purulia district president, Vivek Ranga has appealed for immediate stay on disbursements under the scheme.

In the PIL, Ranga has also demanded a proper and thorough probe into the matter.

Trinamool Congress leadership have alleged that the Union government is unnecessarily isolating West Bengal by sending such central inspection teams to create excuses for not paying the central funds due under this project. They also said that the Union government is acting at the behest of the state BJP leaders in West Bengal especially the leader of the opposition in West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari.

Last week, a senior BJP leader in West Bengal approached the Calcutta High Court over alleged rampant corruption in implementation of the PMAY scheme.