The fresh verification survey on the rural Awas scheme being carried out by the state government suggests that nearly 20 per cent of 11.36 beneficiaries enlisted between November 2022 and January 2023 will have to be deleted.

The ongoing survey on the rural housing scheme, which started on October 21, is being done to re-verify the beneficiary list amid outrage in many areas among “genuine claimants” who were reportedly overlooked in favour of “ineligible names” of those allegedly close to rural TMC leaders.

The state government decided on this newest verification survey ahead of releasing its funds in December to beneficiaries to build their homes.

The Centre has held up funds under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana since November 2022, citing irregularities in the scheme in Bengal. By February 2023, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced that her government would build 11 lakh homes for the poor in Bengal even if the Centre did not pay its share.

The findings of the fresh survey assume immense significance for ruling Trinamool and the Mamata government.

“This means that one in every five beneficiaries on the previous list was ineligible. As a large number of names has to be deleted following this latest verification, it is clear that many ineligible were included in the list and many eligible ones were left out,” said a source.

Alapan Bandyopadhyay, the chief adviser to the chief minister and former chief secretary, said the re-verification drive was being carried out for a specific purpose.

“The state government will provide funds to all eligible people.... The re-verification is being carried out to check whether they are still eligible. It is also being checked to ensure that they have not migrated to any other place,” said Bandyopadhyay.

Sources in the state government said about 15 per cent of the names have been already deleted from the existing list following the re-verification as they either had constructed pucca houses in the last two years or migrated to other places.

“So it cannot be said that the list prepared two years ago was completely erroneous,” said a senior bureaucrat.

A section of bureaucrats said that the agitations in various districts were because of the people’s desire to get houses at the earliest.

“There are 40 lakh mud houses across the state. Everyone wants funds to build concrete dwelling units all at once. But this is not possible. Everyone will get concrete houses in phases. This time, 11.36 lakh people will get funds. The remaining people will have to wait (for the next phase),” said an official.

On Tuesday, Mamata asked the panchayat department to check afresh all beneficiary names to ensure that no eligible person was left out and no ineligible person was included.

Following this, chief secretary Manoj Pant held a video conference with district magistrates on Wednesday and asked them to re-check the details of the beneficiaries struck out of the list.

“The chief secretary asked us to conduct another re-verification of all rejected cases as the state does not want to deprive any eligible person,” said an official.

Sources said that the ruling establishment wanted to verify in all possible ways that the deletions were absolutely valid.

“People’s agitations in various parts of the state have left the ruling party in a spot.... The party has been facing agitations over the RG Kar brutality (the rape and murder of a junior doctor) in urban areas. It does not want to face widespread agitations in rural areas over the housing scheme,” said a source.