Kolkata, Nov 13 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said 12,000 fake beneficiaries who had allegedly received housing assistance fraudulently under the previous TMC regime would be identified and legal action would be taken against them.
“As stated by Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal, 57,000 fake beneficiaries had applied illegally under the previous government’s Banglar Bari project and were delisted. We have already identified 12,000 among them who received the money and have asked them to return the amount. While 1,000 have returned the money, I ask the rest to do the same,” he told a press conference.
Adhikari said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a retired judge has been constituted to probe the institutional corruption that allegedly took place during the previous regime.
“Officials who facilitated these beneficiaries in fraudulently obtaining monetary assistance will be identified and action taken against them. We will launch a CID probe,” Adhikari said.
Accusing the TMC government of politicising the rural housing scheme for the poor, Adhikari said, “They had falsely claimed that 18-19 lakh people covered under their Banglar Bari project would not get money if the BJP came to power.”
“But we proved that wrong as we don’t believe in discriminating on the basis of political affiliation, caste or community, and disbursed money in the first phase,” he added.
Adhikari also said 7,171 additional rural beneficiaries would receive financial assistance in the second phase of the revamped Mukhyamantri Awas Yojana, taking the government’s expenditure on the project to Rs 4,200 crore.
On the PM Surya Ghar scheme, which promotes the use of rooftop solar panels, he said the state had received 1.1 lakh units and urged rural households to install solar panels to avoid rising electricity costs.
Adhikari also said around 8,000 employees would be recruited in the panchayat department, subject to cabinet approval.
The chief minister said 1.65 crore women have benefitted from Annapurna Yojana and that the verification of OBC beneficiaries would be completed by December 1. PTI SUS MNB
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