Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Law and Justice, Abdul Haq Khan today launched Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) under centrally sponsored 'Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana' (Grameen) to provide benefit to 1303 beneficiaries amount to Rs. 16 crore here today.The scheme aims at providing assistance to the poor and economically downtrodden for constructing residential houses.MLA Nagrota Davinder Singh Rana besides Director Rural Development Department Ravinder K. Bhat, Assistant Commissioner Development Jammu M Latifi Tasir, XEN and BDOs of Jammu district were present.Speaking on the occasion, Abdul Haq Khan said that Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) aims to transfer subsidies/financial assistance directly to the people through their bank accounts thus reducing chances of corruption, leakages and delays.The Minister said that to address issues of houseless population government is committed to to provide housing for all by 2022, under PMAY-Grameen wherein beneficiary will be provided a pucca house with all basic amenities.
He said the assistance is targeted at those who are genuinely deprived and the selection is objective and verifiable. He said PMAY-G instead of selecting a beneficiary from among the BPL households, selects beneficiaries using housing deprivation parameters in the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 which is to be further verified by Gram Sabhas.Abdul Haq directed the BDOs to organize Gram Sabhas in their respective areas in September through which the actual beneficiaries are identified besides creating awareness among masses. He asked officiasls to make the list of beneficiaries of various schemes public in respective Gram Sabhas to ensure transparency. He also complimented the role of various officers and field functionaries for their endeavours.The Minister while congratulating the beneficiaries for being provided first instalment, asked them to use this assistance in making the house only otherwise recovery of funds would be done and second instalment will be halted. He also directed the concerned officers to ensure that the assistance being provided to beneficiaries for the construction of houses would be used genuinely.