The Election Commission of India has asked the Mamata Banerjee government to defer the house-to-house survey for the Bangla Awas Yojana (BAY) in the six by-poll-bound Assembly constituencies.
The commission has clarified that it has no objection to the survey being conducted for the rural housing project in the 288 other Assembly constituencies.
The commission, in its communication to the chief electoral officer (CEO), wrote: “The commission has no objection to undertake house-to-house survey in the state of West Bengal except in the areas where MCC (model code of conduct) is enforced with effect from (October 15).”
“Further, it is clarified that house-to-house survey shall be deferred till completion of poll in the following MCC-bound areas,” it added.
The bypolls will take place in Sitai in Coochbehar, Madarihat in Alipurduar, Naihati and Haroa in North 24-Parganas, Medinipur in West Midnapore and Taldangra in Bankura on November 13.
The directive came after the BJP said the survey, which forms the basis of the rural housing project, was a violation of the model code of conduct.
“The commission has endorsed our demand because the state government, in the name of the housing project, is trying to bribe the voters. Every beneficiary will get ₹1.2 lakh each for building a pucca house and the verification process is a major step,” a BJP leader said.
The BAY is a key initiative to provide affordable housing to the poor. Under the scheme, each beneficiary will receive ₹1.2 lakh in two tranches, with the disbursements starting from December 20.
The Bengal government has introduced a three-step verification process to ensure proper grant allocation before releasing the funds. The first step, which began on October 21 and will conclude on October 30, involves block development officers forming teams in each gram panchayat to conduct door-to-door surveys. The entire process will also be videographed.
For added transparency, the initial verification will be followed by cross-verification of at least 15 per cent of the houses by the BDOs or joint BDOs.
Additionally, 2 per cent of those houses will be further cross-checked by subdivisional officers.
“The entire verification process was scheduled much before the by-elections were announced. So, it has got nothing to do with the election. If the verification process was exempted from the MCC, then the people would have got the money at the earliest,” a senior official of the state housing department said.
