Raju Bista faces tough challenge within BJP in Darjeeling
Breaking the BJP’s tradition in Darjeeling, sitting MP Raju Bista has won the first round as his name was announced by the party as a candidate from Darjeeling LS constituency.
Two representatives from the Awadh Research Foundation, Lucknow, sent by the Union rural development ministry, held a meeting over the Pradhan Mantri Awas YojanaGramin (PMAY-G) with Darjeeling district officials here today.
Two national-level monitors (NLM) empanelled with the ministry are set to visit rural areas of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, where they will verify whether the names of eligible people have been included in the PMAY list, and will submit their reports to the ministry. According to Darjeeling district magistrate S Ponnambalam, the administration will cooperate with the NLMs.
“We will cooperate with them if they seek information and visit the places,” he said after the meeting at the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad this evening. Administrative sources said that during the survey for PMAY in the district during 2018-19, the proposed list was prepared for 30,000 people, but during the three-step verification in NovemberDecember last year to ensure that no non-eligible person gets the PMAY benefit, 6000 names were deleted.
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Of the 24,000, the list for 7,700 was prepared as eligible persons for the 2022- 23 financial year. According to officials, the ministry had decided to depute five teams of NLMs to conduct a detailed inquiry into the complaints related to irregularities under the PMAY-G in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Malda, Murshidabad, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Alipurduar and East Burdwan.
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