KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday, instructed the panchayat department to reassess the eligibility of individuals whose names were removed from the rural housing scheme beneficiary list. This directive follows numerous complaints from beneficiaries who claimed that eligible individuals were omitted while ineligible ones remained on the list.Banerjee’s instruction is significant amid rising resistance in parts of Bengal to survey teams assessing the eligibility of the 11.36 lakh beneficiaries under the scheme.“The chief minister instructed the panchayat department to ensure that no eligible person is excluded from the rural housing scheme, for which the state will release funds in December. She directed the department to conduct a fresh reconfirmation survey to verify that no genuine beneficiary is overlooked,” said a senior official.Sources said the state government recently decided to undertake a fresh survey to check the eligibility of the 11.36 lakh beneficiaries whose names were short-listed following a three-step verification about a year ago. As the Centre did not release its share of nearly Rs 8,000 crore to Bengal, citing irregularities in the scheme here, the state government decided to release funds from its own coffers.“The state will release the first instalment in December. Ahead of its release, a survey is being held to check if all the beneficiaries have fulfilled the criteria. But the way people are agitating over being left out, the chief minister has been forced to order a reconfirmation survey so that no genuine beneficiary is left out,” said a source.However, another source claimed the issue runs deep. “A fresh survey alone won’t resolve the problem. It appears last year’s list was poorly prepared. A thorough exercise is needed to create a new list, removing names of ineligible individuals identified by furious villagers,” the source added.Protests occurred on Monday and Tuesday in Rampurhat (Birbhum), Domkal (Murshidabad), and Mathurapur (South 24-Parganas), where several TMC panchayat samiti members faced accusations of nepotism and favouritism. Villagers alleged that hosuing units were allocated to relatives of ruling party leaders who did not meet the criteria, leaving genuine claimants without support.TMC insiders acknowledged that rural protests were embarrassing for the ruling party, especially as the Mamata Banerjee government grapples with large-scale urban unrest following the RG Kar incident.The BJP is looking to leverage these rural protests against the ruling party. “The entire survey process has been compromised. Certain TMC leaders have colluded with survey teams to allocate dwelling units to their own supporters. The truly needy are being excluded,” said Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP’s Nandigram MLA and leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.The CPM also criticised the situation, stating that favouritism is expected under the Trinamool regime. “We demand houses for everyone, yet only Trinamool supporters receive them. This is a corrupt administration. The Centre and state are complicit. If the central government believed there were issues in Bengal’s 100 days’ job scheme, why didn’t they act? Now, people realise they must fight for their rights,” added CPM state secretary Md Salim.
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