The Trinamool Congress and the BJP in Hooghly district appeared to be on the same page on Monday to demand a fair list of beneficiaries under the rural housing scheme.

Members of the rival parties, accompanied by villagers, staged separate demonstrations in two block development offices, each voicing the same demand.

BJP’s Arambagh MLA, Madhusudan Bag, led a group of villagers from his constituency to hold a demonstration in the Arambagh block development officer’s (BDO) office, demanding the inclusion of their names in the scheme as eligible candidates.

Barely 15km away, local TMC leader Sheikh Basir Ali held a protest with a group of women in the Goghat 2 BDO office and raised demands similar to those of the BJP in Arambagh.

Villagers who agitated for the fair Awas Yojana list come out of the Goghat BDO office on Monday.

The protests were triggered by a recent initiative of the state government to verify the list of beneficiaries under the rural housing scheme.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had instructed that the list include those whose homes were severely damaged in the September floods, in addition to the existing 11.36 lakh beneficiaries under the rural housing unit scheme.

The verification of the applicants’ eligibility began on October 21, with the first phase scheduled for completion by October 30.

A senior official said the verification process would cover those listed in the Awas Yojana 2022-23 and recent flood victims.

Each verified beneficiary would receive ₹1.2 lakh in two instalments, with the funds disbursal from the state exchequer scheduled to start on December 20.

Since the central government halted funding under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Mamata announced that the state would shoulder the full financial responsibility.

Bag, the BJP’s Arambagh MLA, claimed he joined the movement after noticing that the names of many individuals with concrete homes were on the list, while numerous eligible villagers were excluded from the scheme.

“The government is verifying a list prepared in 2018. Meanwhile, many of those who had applied for a dwelling unit have since built homes themselves but their names remain on the list. We demand a fair beneficiary list,” Bag said.

According to sources, as the survey progressed in rural areas, local TMC leaders faced challenges, with villagers without concrete homes demanding the inclusion of their names in the list.

Sheikh Basir Ali, the local TMC leader and husband of a TMC gram panchayat member in Hooghly’s Mandaran, claimed he joined the protest because of persistent pressure from villagers deprived of housing benefits.

Sources said villagers even surrounded Ali’s home, demanding explanations for the exclusion of their names from the beneficiary list.

“The demands of those who came to my home are justified, as they are all poor and lack concrete houses. Since my wife is a panchayat representative, I must support these people. That’s why I went to the BDO office to present their demands,” Ali said.

Sources said several ruling party leaders in different districts were facing similar pressures, especially from villagers excluded from the list.

Residents of Baligram gram panchayat in Murshidabad’s Bagabangola 2 block, accompanied by a local panchayat member, petitioned the administration for a review before finalising the beneficiary list, alleging that many eligible individuals were left out, while others with concrete homes were included.

A senior official clarified that the state panchayat department had issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the verification of beneficiaries to prevent malpractices.

According to the SOP, block development officers will form teams in each gram panchayat to conduct door-to-door surveys from October 21 to 30. Survey results will be updated on a designated mobile application, with the process being videographed for transparency.

After initial verification, cross-verification will be conducted by BDOs and subdivisional officers. The final beneficiary list is expected to be published in the third week of November.

“The government is verifying beneficiaries listed on the Awasplus database waitlist. Most of those requesting inclusion were not on this list. However, anyone already owning a concrete house will not qualify for rural housing scheme funds,” the official said.