Minister for Rural Development I. Periyasamy on Monday countered Governor R.N. Ravi’s allegation that poor villagers in Nagapattinam district were unable to benefit from the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the Prime Minister’s housing scheme, due to “administrative apathy and alleged corruption” of the State government.
Mr. Ravi had made the comments after his visit to Keezhvenmani village on Sunday. In a statement, Mr. Periyasamy said that 127 beneficiaries in Venmani panchayat were granted permission to construct houses under PMAY, of whom 75 had already completed construction while work was under way for the remaining 52 families.
He said that the Union government had set panchayat-wise targets, and had not approved a proposal to transfer the sanctioned number of houses from panchayats where there were no eligible beneficiaries to panchayats where the demand and the number of eligible beneficiaries were high. It was because of this that the State was unable to sanction more houses under PMAY in panchayats such as Venmani, he said.
