According to a report published by Economic Times, the Centre has written to all states asking for the latest housing figures for the ‘’closure’’ of the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY), a rural housing scheme initiated by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi almost four decades ago. This indicates the official dismissal of one of the last schemes bearing the name of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in government files.
Launched in 1985, Narendra Modi government had restructured this scheme and renamed it as Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) from 1st April, 2016. Modi government had cited an Auditor General of India report in 2014 which pointed out deficiencies in the IAY such as – weak monitoring system, lack of transparency in the selection of the beneficiaries, low quality of houses and stated that PMAY-G would address these issues.
The IAY was not entirely scrapped from the government files as on the launching date of the new re-structured scheme April 1st, 2016, there were more than 30 lakh pending houses left to be constructed under IYA. Thus, Modi government chose to complete those with an added option for using funds from the PMAY-G scheme.
In the letter dated June 15th, the Centre has categorically asked the state to specify whether all the houses under the IAY were completed by March 31st, 2018. It also stated that all accounts under the former scheme are settled and brought to a closure. The IAY scheme is being closed in government files before the aimed completion of the Modi governments’ PMAY-G scheme, which seeks to complete one-crore rural houses by December 2019.
Earlier in 2015, Modi Government had knocked off names of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi from the annual awards given by the Home Ministry on Hindi Diwas for progressive use of Hindi in government.
