Baripada: Coming down heavily on officials, Mayurbhanj Collector Hema Kanta Say has directed the block administrations to withhold salaries of over 800 'non-performing' officers after the district figured as the worst performer in ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana’. 

In a letter Block Development Officers (BDOs), Say raised serious concerns about the district's poor performance in PMAY which aims to ensure 'Housing for All' goal of the Central government and instructed them to withhold the salaries of 843 officers whose performance was found to be wanting. 

“Even after repeated instructions and monitoring, performance in completion of rural housing is not satisfactory. Furthermore, it is found that the performance of 843 officers, out of 1016, is very poor who were found to have not even achieved 63 per cent completion, even if after a year has elapsed. Their effort in completion of rural houses is very less in comparison to state average (63%), which is totally unacceptable. Hence, it is directed that the salary of these 843 low performing officers will not be released from the month of October 2024 till achievement of 63% against their target,” the Collector’s letter read.

The letter further stated that lack of field visits and constant monitoring has hampered the scheme's implementation in the district. Say also directed BDOs to monitor the progress of PMAY and ensure the scheme's target in the district is on track as desired by the government.

PMAY aims to facilitate access to affordable housing for the low and moderate-income residents of the country. With two components - rural and urban administered by respective Ministries - the scheme converges with other programmes to ensure the houses have basic amenities like toilet, universal electricity connection under Saubhagya scheme, LPG connection under Ujjwala Yojana, access to drinking water, Jan Dhan banking facilities, etc.