10 villagers set example, ‘give up’ Central scheme benefits

Setting an example, 10 residents of the Lahru gram panchayat under the Nagrota Surian development block have decided to give up benefits under a Centrally sponsored scheme, maintaining that people more deserving than them should instead get preference.

A total of 57 pucca houses were sanctioned recently in the gram panchayat under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY).

These 10 families were found to be very poor and had no pucca houses when geo-tagging of their kutcha houses was undertaken by the Nagrota Surian development block staff in 2018.

However, when they were sanctioned houses under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana, the residents declined to take the monetary grant being issued to them.

They told to the gram panchayat that they had either built their pucca houses on their own or some member in their families had got a government job.

They also offered to give an affidavit to the panchayat so that the benefit could be passed on to other eligible poor families.

Nagrota Surian Block Development Officer Sham Singh told the Tribune that initially, these 10 names were included in the list of 57 poor families of the Lahru gram panchayat and were shortlisted as beneficiaries under the PMAY.

“However, before the start of the final verification of their eligibility, the residents declined to take the PMAY benefits,” he said.

Singh lauded the decision taken by the 10 families by declining the benefits and passing the same to other eligible poor families in the panchayat.

Varinder Guleria, pradhan of the Lahru gram panchayat, said people should follow the example of these families and decline financial benefits under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana, if they were well-to-do, had pucca houses or got government employment.