Rural development officers demand extension of survey period for housing scheme
The Hindu
Tamil Nadu Rural Development Officers demand more manpower and extended survey period for Kalaignar Kanavu Illam scheme.
Members of Tamil Nadu Rural Development Officers’ Association staged a protest here on Monday demanding additional manpower and extension of survey period for Kalaignar Kanavu Illam scheme.
The protesters demanded that as they had very minimum workforce, they could not complete the finalisation of eligible beneficiaries within the stipulated time of June 25.
The special gram sabha meeting scheduled on June 30 to discuss the survey details was rescheduled to be conducted on June 28 itself, they added. “Due to this, we could not complete the survey which is essential to identify beneficiaries eligible for the scheme based on the criteria set for availing the scheme,” they added.
When the Kalaignar Veetu Vasathi Thittam was launched in 2006, the required work force was allotted to manage the workload required for the scheme work, said, S. Amutharasan, district secretary of the association.
As identifying the beneficiaries for KKI scheme was laborious, it was equally hard to conduct field survey of the dilapidated group houses under Repair to Rural Houses (RRH) scheme, he added.
“As the total number of houses to be sanctioned in Madurai district is 3,468, the process requires more time. In addition to this, as the government has modified the norms several times, it gets confusing as some of them who were deemed ineligible before are fitting in the eligibility criteria after government alters the eligibility norms,” Mr. Amutharasan added.
As the process has witnessed several changes, the officers in charge were struck in a whirlwind of confusion about whom to add and whom to leave, so to solve the issue pertaining to the surveying process, the deadline though was on June 25, should be extended, he said.
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