The East Burdwan district administration has initiated a probe after discovering a list of beneficiaries in a rural housing scheme, in which six dwelling units were sanctioned for a single “fictitious” name.

“As soon as we learned that six allotments (in the rural housing scheme) had been made under one name, we started a probe. Primary reports suggest that there is no villager by the name of Sudeshna Roy, yet, her name has featured as a beneficiary six times on the list,” said Asif Ansari, the block development officer of Katwa 2 block.

The development in East Burdwan has once again allowed Opposition leaders to train their guns at the Mamata Banerjee government over alleged malpractices in the rural housing scheme. Many villages witnessed widespread protests with allegations that ineligible candidates close to the Trinamul Congress had their names on the beneficiary lists.

After the Narendra Modi government had halted the release of funds under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in 2022, chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced that the state would cover the entire cost to build houses for 11.36 lakh applicants from December this year.

Before releasing funds to the beneficiaries’ accounts, the state government initiated a survey on October 21 to verify that all whose names were on the lists were still eligible.

A source said some residents of Jagadanandapur gram panchayat had scanned the latest list for Awas Yojana and found that six houses were allotted to Sudeshna Roy.

“It was a shock when we found Sudeshna Roy’s name on the Awas list six times, as there is no one by that name here. We immediately asked the local panchayat authorities to clarify this entry,” said a villager.

The Jagadanandapur gram panchayat list shows that out of 462 potential beneficiaries, the name, Sudeshna Roy, appears six times with serial numbers from 380 to 385, as a resident of three different villages — Musthuli, Amdanga, and Jagadanandapur.

Under the Bangla Awas Yojana (BAY) scheme of the state, ₹1.2 lakh is allocated to each beneficiary in three instalments.

“That means ₹7.2 lakh could have been disbursed to fictitious beneficiaries if we hadn’t caught it,” said Gopal Chatterjee, the BJP president of the Katwa organisational district.

“This proves how the funds allotted by the Narendra Modi government were being misused by Trinamool leaders with the help of the administration. The anomaly is not limited to Jagadanandapur. Such malpractices are widespread in gram panchayats across the state,” he added.

On November 4, the Bengal unit of the BJP wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking an Enforcement Directorate probe into Bengal’s funds utilisation under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana up to 2022.

Apurba Chatterjee, a CPM district secretariat member in East Burdwan, said the party had called for a movement demanding a fresh list with the names of only eligible applicants before the state government released funds.

“The names of thousands of ineligible applicants are on the Awas Yojana beneficiary lists. We have instructed our party workers to hold a rally with eligible beneficiaries whose names have been replaced by those of ineligible people,” said the CPM leader.

A senior official explained the list had initially been prepared in 2018 and most panchayat officials involved in it were replaced before the 2023 panchayat elections.

“It would have been better if the government had prepared a fresh list of prospective beneficiaries’ names, instead of verifying old ones. This way, we could have avoided the current agitation and public discontent over alleged malpractice. Current panchayat officials, unaware of the list’s contents, are facing embarrassment,” an official said.

Trinamool leaders in Katwa tried to downplay the issue, claiming the entry was a mistake, as the names of husbands (of Sudeshna Roy) listed were different and included voter ID numbers.

Interestingly, two villagers whose names were listed as Sudeshna Roy’s husbands claimed that the voter ID numbers did not match their wives’ IDs.

“My wife’s name is Menaka Das and she passed away two years ago. The panchayat member assured me it wasn’t me or my wife, as the document doesn’t match,” said Badal Das, who was listed as the husband of Sudeshna Roy.

Rabindranath Chatterjee, the TMC president in East Burdwan, said the state had initiated the survey to uncover such irregularities.

“The money has not been disbursed to any fictitious name so far. The state started the survey to ensure no ineligible or unauthorised applicants benefit from the scheme,” Chatterjee said.