RAIPUR: Nearly 200 beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana from Adarsh Sankalp Society in Labhandi, Raipur, staged a demonstration at the headquarters of the Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC) for several hours on Thursday afternoon, accusing the civic body of cheating them.
The residents — Ghanshyam Sahu, Sattu Panka, and housing society president Suraj Yadav — told TOI that most of the PMAY beneficiaries have been allotted old flats with no window panels, doors or proper sanitation facilities.
“We have bought these flats for Rs 3.25 lakh each and are paying EMIs for the bank loan. We have been demanding facilities for our colony residents for the past seven months, but in vain. We had no other option but to stage a gherao at the RMC headquarters when Zone-9 official, under which our colony falls, did not pay heed to our problems,” Ghanshyam said.
“A private school is illegally built on the land meant for the colony playground. A gate has been opened by the school by breaking the boundary wall of the colony constructed by the RMC to use the colony premises to reach the school,” he said adding that we were promised new houses under PMAY but were cheated.
The RMC Zone-9 commissioner Santosh Pandey said that he has asked the concerned authority of the PMAY to look into the matter as it falls under their jurisdiction. “I visited the colony on Friday morning and found that the private school, namely Geeta Vidya Mandir, has opened a gate by breaking the boundary wall constructed by the RMC six months back. This is illegal, and thus we are serving a notice to the school first before taking any action. As far as the encroachment of society land by the school is concerned, as claimed by the residents, it is a matter of investigation,” Pandey told TOI.
Some of the beneficiaries who have recently shifted to the PMAY flats came to the zone office with complaints, the zone commissioner said, adding that necessary measures are being taken to resolve the problems.
