A two-member team sent by the Centre to verify the lists of beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in Malda has found out that two residents of Bihar were enlisted as eligible persons.

As the central officials came across the information on Tuesday, the team again went to the same village on Wednesday and the neighbouring village of Bihar to double-check the information.

Sources said Ram Sagar and Ashish Srivastava, the team members, reached Gobindapur, a village in Mahanandatola panchayat under Ratua-I block of the district. They were carrying the beneficiaries’ list of the village.

As they started verifying the details of the beneficiaries, they came across the names of Shyam Yadav and Abu Taleb. They found that both of them are residents of Baharshal, a village in Durgapur panchayat in Katihar district of Bihar.

Baharshal and Gobindapur share the interstate border of Bengal and Bihar.

“They found that Yadav is a former panchayat member while Taleb is the father of Wasim Akhtar, who is a sitting panchayat member,” said a source.

The team visited Gobindapur again on Wednesday. They spoke with at least 15 beneficiaries and went to Baharshal where they met Yadav and Taleb’s families to confirm their identities.

During their visit, some residents alleged that a section of local panchayat members have included names of the residents of Bihar in the list against money.

“We could not pay money to the panchayat members and so we were deprived of the benefit. On the other hand, names of people who are from Bihar and have their own houses were included as beneficiaries,” said Ayub Sheikh, a resident of Gobindapur.

As the issue came to light, officials of Malda district administration quickly said during a recent survey conducted in the village, at least 27 names had been deleted.

“We need to check whether the names of these two persons (of Bihar) were deleted,” said a source.

From Gobindapur, the team went to Bhaluka, a panchayat area in Harishchandrapur-II block. There, they held a meeting with the elected representatives and Vijay Giri, the BDO.

While the meeting was in progress, some villagers assembled in front of the panchayat office.

They resorted to demonstration, alleging that they were deprived of PMAY assistance because of the BDO’s negligence.

Protesters like Obaidur Rahman and Murtaza Alam, along with some others shouted slogans in presence of the central team as the BDO reached there.

“Some local Trinamul leaders and panchayat members have included their names in the list and deprived us. When we protested, the BDO turned deaf to our allegations and even threatened us. We heard that the central team will be here today and thus came to draw their attention,” Rahman said.

Officials of the administration declined comments on the allegations.