The Mamata Banerjee government’s plan to run a fool-proof check on the eligibility of over 11 lakh prospective beneficiaries of a central housing scheme seems to have hit a roadblock as protests have greeted officials who are conducting physical verification of villagers’ bona fides to receive the grant across the state.

Each beneficiary will get Rs 1.2 lakh to build a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

The agitation by the villagers, a source said, has left the panchayat department in a spot as it cannot sanction a list with the names of ineligible persons as beneficiaries at a time the Centre is keeping a close watch on the disbursal of the funds.

“The survey of beneficiaries began on December 4 and complaints have already reached that officials are being harassed when they go to check the eligibility of beneficiaries,” said a source.

The problem for the panchayat department is getting compounded as it has also received a directive from the government’s top brass that indiscriminate deletion of names from the list of beneficiaries will not be tolerated.

Anganwadi and Asha workers, who are primarily carrying out the eligibility check, along with civic volunteers, refused to carry on with the survey in some parts of the state, alleging they were being harassed by villagers in various areas.

“Such reports have been received from Murshidabad, Birbhum and North 24-Parganas. Primarily, we have come to know that the villagers are agitating only because they are apprehending that their names will be deleted from the list of beneficiaries. The villagers were apprehensive only because no such survey of beneficiaries was carried out in previous years,” said an official.

Sensing the agitations could take an ugly turn in the next few days since the state government planned a three-tier verification system, the panchayat department has asked district magistrates to do a recheck properly before deleting any name.

“... Be sure that the physical inquiry is conclusive and the deserving person is not de-prived... Any wrong or mass deletion of households may lead to resentment and create law-and-order problems,” reads a WhatsApp message sent to the DMs from the statesecretariat on Monday.