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#MeToo: Professor and columnist for Mukul Sinha’s portal suspended on sexual assault charges by MICA

OpIndia Staff
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#MeToo: Professor and columnist for Mukul Sinha’s portal suspended on sexual assault charges by MICA

Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA), the premier institute of communication in Ahmedabad has suspended its Associate Professor Pravin Mishra after allegations of sexual assault surfaced against him under the current ongoing #MeToo movement that has taken the country by storm. In her post on Facebook, the woman has accused Pravin Mishra of assaulting her in his house.

She says that she worked part-time with Pravin’s father in law and when she spoke up, Pravin Mishra’s father in law made him and her sit across as ‘talk it out’. “This opportunity was afforded to me because then there would be no need for a police complaint and because it was the best I could hope for: a measly, coerced, half-hearted, apology from a predator embarrassed out of his wits,” she said in her post.

Taking cognisance of her allegations, MICA has initiated an inquiry against him. He has been placed under suspension until completion of the inquiry. Mishra, however, has claimed that he has not been informed of the assault complaint against him and hence he has no response on the same.

Mishra is the same MICA professor who was a regular contributor on ‘truthofgujarat.com’, a portal run by anti-Modi activist Mukul Sinha which claimed complicity of state machinery during 2002 riots. The portal was accused of spreading misleading information and was countered by portals like gujaratriots.com. He has also written for various publications like ThePrint and Firstpost.

Mishra, who is currently under suspension, has donned various hats. Back in 2002, as a student of NID (National Institute of Design), he had designed Narendra Modi’s campaign vehicle, and five years later, decided to contest against Modi from Maninagar constituency as a candidate from New Socialist Movement (NSM), an offshoot of Mukul Sinha’s Jan Sangharsh Manch, who was also contesting 2002 Gujarat elections.

Then, like many other Dalit rights’ activist, in 2016, Pravin Mishra suddenly became a Dalit rights activist after the Una incident, where Dalit youths were allegedly beaten up by cow vigilantes. Mishra, at that time, had claimed that Dalits are not allowed in 98% of temples in Gujarat, a statement he could not back with facts.


And some days, when he is perhaps bored, he participates in trending hashtags on Twitter, thereby joining the esteemed league of hashtag activists.

Mishra also is an artist and is known for creating posters, including the logo and cover image for altnews.in and various human rights causes.

Gujarat: Congress leader accused of instigating violence against migrants says ‘all is well’, blames social media

OpIndia Staff
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Gujarat: Congress leader accused of instigating violence against migrants says ‘all is well’, blames social media

Gujarat Congress leader and MLA Alpesh Thakor, who according to reports was involved in instigating violence against non-Gujaratis, will be sitting on a ‘Sadbhavna Upvas’, to establish “peace and harmony”.


He accused social media of creating panic among non-Gujaratis in the state. He also said that he doesn’t support regionalism.

We had reported some speeches in which Alpesh Thakor was heard saying  “all these outsiders who come here, they commit a crime here which has led to an increase in gundagardi”. He had also issued a deadline for all non-Gujaratis to leave the state. He and his Thakor Sena is demanding for 80% reservation of jobs for local people and attacking establishments that employ people from other states. Members of Congress have been caught giving deadlines to leave the state or face consequences.

This had caused an exodus of migrant workers from Gujarat to their respective native states. According to reports thousands of people have already fled the state. CM Rupani had later, assured all migrant workers of safety and had called for their return.

Earlier Alpesh Thakor had made another bizarre claim regarding the exodus of non-Gujaraties from Gujarat. He had said that people from other states were leaving Gujarat for Chhath puja. Fact is this year the Chhath puja is in the second week of November, and people have started leaving Gujarat in the first week of October, means if they don’t return till the puja, they will be not attending work for at least one and a half month. Which private sector industry grants such long leave to so many people? Even for vendors and shopkeepers, it is a very long absence from their business which will seriously hamper their earnings.

Many members of his Thakor Sena have been arrested by police in relation to the violence that ensued in Gandhinagar, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Patan and Ahmedabad districts, following reports of rape of a baby girl by the migrant worker from Bihar. Alpesh Thakor had demanded the release of all people arrested.

Congress has defended Alpesh Thakor’s acts and has taken no action against him, even days after allegations surfaced.

Rahul Gandhi’s press conference: Shameless name calling and a host of oft repeated lies

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi’s press conference: Shameless name calling and a host of oft repeated lies

Today Rahul Gandhi organised a press conference in which he indicted PM Modi of corruption in the Rafale fighter jets deal.  We have identified the statements he made in the presser and decided to fact-check on them one by one:-

PM is silent on the Rafale Deal because he is exposed: Several Cabinet ministers of PM Modi have already come in open and spoken in detail about the inter-government Rafale deal with France. N Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, and Piyush Goyal have all addressed media refuting the claims of corruption made by the Congress. In fact, Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged that Congress renegotiated the Rafale deal for bribes. Arun Jaitley had given an interview to ANI dismissing the ill-informed allegations made by the Congress President. The Finance Minister has also posted detailed explanations on Facebook. If senior BJP cabinet ministers have responded to the accusations, why is Rahul Gandhi lying about it? It may be because his allegations don’t hold water.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glV48RfmscY]

Clear Cut case of corruption against PM Modi

There is no corruption case as of now, let alone a clear cut case of corruption against PM Modi. Yesterday, the Supreme Court refused to issue a notice to the centre in connection with the Rafale deal. If there is a clear-cut case of corruption, why did the SC did not notice it and take a suo-moto cognizance on the same? The top court has also mentioned that allegations made by the petitioners are “inadequate and deficient”.

Questioned Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit to France

Questioning N Sitharaman’s visit to France, Rahul has obliquely accused N Sitharaman of striking negotiations with the French authorities after the Rafale scam got exposed. According to the official sources, Sitharaman is on her visit to France to hold wide-ranging talks with her French counterpart Florence Parly on ways to deepen strategic cooperation between the two countries and the two sides will also deliberate on major regional and global issues of mutual interests.

In their talks, Sitharaman and Party are expected to deliberate on joint production of military platforms and weapons by the two countries. She will also take the stock of progress in the supply of Rafale jets. Ministers routinely visit other nations for bilateral and multilateral meets and alleging corruption in that is hilarious. Rahul Gandhi himself undertakes so many journeys overseas, detail of most of them remain unknown to the public.

The Defence Ministry has also issued a statement that the trip was postponed twice in the past before the dates being finalised on 7th September 2018 and hence, the speculations and allegations don’t hold up.


French President Macron told me that price is not included in the secrecy clause

The France government has already denied any discussion on this topic took place between Rahul Gandhi and Emmanuel Macron. They also had confirmed that the Rafale deal comes under the confidentiality clause of the security agreement signed between the two nations.

Interestingly, earlier Rahul Gandhi had claimed that Macron had said to him there is no secret clause in the deal and PM Modi can disclose details. Now he has changed his argument saying the price is not included in the secrecy clause. At last, he has accepted the existence of the clause.

Former French President told me in private that Reliance should get the deal

Rahul Gandhi has alleged that former French president Hollande told him in private that they were left with no options and the Indian government wanted to go ahead with Anil Ambani. However, the French government clarified that they were not involved in choosing the defence partners and that the French companies have full independence to do so. The Indian Government had already dismissed Hollande’s earlier claim as false.

Dassault’s deputy executive has said that PM of India has decided to compensate Reliance

We have already reported how French publication has misinterpreted the comments of deputy CEO of Dassault. While talking to a labour union, he was explaining that there is a mandatory offset obligation in the deal and therefore Dassault is setting up a plant in India. This was misinterpreted as Reliance being made mandatory partner. Now Rahul Gandhi has added his own interpretation in the allegation, bringing in PM’s name and the word ‘compensation’. He has focused on the word, but the French publication has used the term to mean ‘offset’, which is part of the deal. They are not talking compensating Ambani for anything, because in French the word also means offset.

Dassault is sitting on a huge contract. Dassault is going to say what the Indian government wants it to say

Citing an internal document of Dassault aviation Rahul Gandhi alleged that Indian Government forced them to choose Anil Ambani’s Reliance group as one of their offsets but refuting the allegations made by the senior executive of Rafale, Dassault on Wednesday had already denied allegations of being forced to make Anil Ambani’s Reliance group as offset partner. “This joint-venture, Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd (DRAL), was created on February 10, 2017. Other partnerships have been signed with other companies such as BTSL, DEFSYS, Kinetic, Mahindra, Maini, SAMTEL,… Other negotiations are ongoing with hundred-odd other potential partners,” Dassault said in a press release.

This is not just about Rafale, the scam is about Defence Ministry

Rahul Gandhi is still yet to prove malfeasance by any government official involved in the Rafale deal but he is now accusing the entire Defence Ministry of being involved in corruption. Without furnishing any proof or even a shred of evidence, Rahul has accused the ministry of being involved in corruption.

It is clear that Rahul Gandhi, through his presser, is more interested in politicising the issue rather than genuinely pursuing the case for detecting corruption. Whatever he has claimed in the presser are either open-ended accusations or downright lies.

Entitled, arrogant media wants to be above the law, as reaction to raids on The Quint founder clearly shows

K Bhattacharjee
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Entitled, arrogant media wants to be above the law, as reaction to raids on The Quint founder clearly shows

The media all across the world has shown again and again that what it fears the most is accountability and taking responsibility for its actions. The media wants complete independence to carry on with its work without having to face any repercussions for its often improper and criminal conduct.

Reports came in earlier today that the IT department was conducting raids at the residential premises of Raghav Bahl, the owner and founder of the left-leaning media portal. Almost immediately, before any details of the raids had emerged, the usual suspects began branding the raids as an attack on the media.


Before investigations could even to any conclusion, the media had already passed its judgment and absolved Bahl of any wrongdoing. Since a long time, the media has been less of a watchdog on various institutions of the state and more of a protected class which works solely to protect and promote its own interests.

The media does not want to be subjected to the same standards it sets for others and cries victim every time someone among them is accused of misconduct or investigated regarding some matter. It appears the self-aggrandizing media cannot perceive that anyone from their fraternity could commit crimes and be prosecuted for it. It a delusion that they collectively suffer from, that the only reason any powerful journalist could be prosecuted for is always only political.

The media has clearly shown time and again that they are completely incapable of regulating themselves. And there is absolutely no reason why they should be held to a different standard than any other citizen of India. Yet, that is exactly what they seek. They seek a complete lack of accountability and more disturbingly, they seek to use their power to shape public opinion to alleviate themselves above the ambit of law.

Indian mainstream media outlets have failed miserably to perform the one task that it is supposed to be a media outlet’s primary job: report news. We, at OpIndia.com, have regularly exposed the remarkable frequency with which the media spread fake news and yet suffers absolutely no consequence as a result. Instead of reporting facts, they write fiction to further a narrative that would help a particular political party. The reason why the media cries foul every time one of them is investigated or suffer some punitive action by the NDA government and claims political motive on their part is because they are fully aware that they are acting as political hacks and therefore, always live under the fear that their political opponents in the government will take action against them driven by political motives.

The mainstream media wants complete independence to lecture the rest of us on how to conduct ourselves while portraying themselves to be the torchbearers of virtuous conduct in the country. And yet, as we have seen clearly these past days, they completely fail to curb the rampant exploitation of women by people in their own midst and often turn a blind eye to their colleagues’ conduct. They are completely blind to the crippling character flaws that many senior editors in their fraternity suffer from.

The mainstream media should take a long hard look at the mirror and introspect on why large sections of the country absolutely detest them. They are not angels who have descended from heaven that they are incapable of committing any crime. It absolutely disgusts that they want to project themselves above the ambit of law.

They do not even want law enforcement authorities to investigate them. It reeks of elitism, arrogance and hypocrisy. It’s not the politicians in the country which are the most entitled bunch. It’s the mainstream media journalists who are so arrogant that they believe themselves to be so entitled that law enforcement authorities should not even investigate them even if they valid cause.

Uttar Pradesh: 600 people took oath on the first day of Navratri not to commit crime

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: 600 people took oath on the first day of Navratri not to commit crime

On the noble initiative of the Superintendent of Police, about 600 people took the oath of not committing any crime in Ompuri village of Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh, as reported by Jagran.

According to SP Alok Priyadarshi, a lot of men in the Ompuri village were indulging in criminal activities. Some of them were also giving protection to criminals. The women in the village used to manufacture and sell illicit liquor. This initiative has been taken to prevent people from committing crimes. He wishes to continue the practice in future.

The oath was taken during the Havan Puja performed on the auspicious day of first Shardi Navratri. “The effort has been made to bring the people indulging in crime into the mainstream and help them lead a normal life”, he added.

Ompuri village is infamous for its crime and illegal liquor manufacturing. Here men and women were equally involved in criminal activities which is the reason that SP Priyadarshi came up with this unique idea of making people take an oath not to continue on the path of crime and be responsible citizens. The Havan Puja was done with an aim to improve the police-public relations in the area.

RVS Mani claims Kamal Nath said ‘people are willing to drink Rahul Gandhi’s urine’ while asking him to concoct Hindu terror

OpIndia Staff
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RVS Mani claims Kamal Nath said ‘people are willing to drink Rahul Gandhi’s urine’ while asking him to concoct Hindu terror

The Congress’s bogey of the ‘Hindu-Terror’ to defame Hindus is being exposed gradually, as RVS Mani, former under-secretary in the Minister of Home Affairs, has come out with another shocking video revealing the details of the alleged direct involvement of the Congress leader Kamal Nath in developing the ‘Hindu-Terror’ narrative.

In an hour-long video released by RVS Mani, he talks about the details of Congress’ alleged interference in Ishrat Jahan encounter case and the amount of pressure exerted by the Congress leadership to implicate Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the encounter case. RVS Mani also details how the Congress tried to concoct the “Hindu terror” bogey in a systematic manner.

According to RVS Mani, Kamal Nath had met him in Urban Development Ministry, had allegedly asked RVS Mani to change the narrative of the Ishrat Jahan encounter case to implicate Narendra Modi, who at that time was the Chief Minister of Gujarat and further the Hindu terror narrative. The narration claims that there was pressure on him to declare Ishran Jahan as an innocent, so as to implicate Narendra Modi in her ‘encounter’.

RVS Mani has claimed that Kamal Nath, who was accompanied by two other officers, requested him to alter the facts of the matter, but RVS Mani then had insisted to present the facts and refused to indulge in falsifying any evidence.

The reply by Kamal Nath to RVS Mani’s statements, if believed to be true is rather shocking. According to the Mani, Kamal Nath offensively replied, “Bahar log Rahul Gandhi ka peshaab peeney ke liye thayar hai, aap itna chota kaam nahi kar sakte ho? (People are ready to drink Rahul Gandhi’s urine and can’t you do this small favour?) “.

“Aap logon ko peshaab peene ka taste hoga, aap log peejiye. Mein nahin peetha, mein sach ke saath khada hoon (You know the taste of Urine, You can drink it and I will stand for the truth)”, RVS Mani said to have replied to Kamal Nath, according to his statements from the video.


R V S Mani, former under-secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in his book Hindu Terror (2018) has written the detailed account of the processes and mechanisms through which the leadership of the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, headed by Sonia Gandhi created this formidable false narrative to fix the present Prime Narendra Modi and other people with the ‘Hindu-terror’ bogey. The book through documents and details proves how the then home minister P Chidambaram literally manufactured the ‘Hindu terror’.

We had reported regarding the details of RVS Mani’s claims of threat to his life soon after he released the book to burst the myth of ‘Hindu-Terror’.

People question why this French publication has peddled two misleading reports on Rafale till now

OpIndia Staff
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People question why this French publication has peddled two misleading reports on Rafale till now

French publication Mediapart has till now published two misleading reports on the Rafale deal. First one came when it published a quote by former French President Hollande where he reportedly had said that the Government of India had proposed that the Anil Ambani owned Reliance Defence should be the service provider to Dassault in the mega-deal. As the controversy escalated, the French government issued a statement that the contract between the French and the Indian government was strictly related to the delivery and quantity of the aircraft. It further clarified that the French government had no role to play in the choice of Indian industrial partners and French companies have the full freedom to choose the Indian company they want to partner with.

OpIndia had then reported how the facts of the deal are being selectively ignored by the politicians to score a political point. We had explained how as per the offset obligations put by India, Dassault would have to fulfil offset obligations of 50% of total deal value in the forms of investment in India, purchase from India, or transfer of technology to Indian companies. As per the offset agreement, Dassault got into contracts with hundreds of companies including Anil Ambani led Reliance as well as state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

Despite the clarifications, in less than a month, Mediapart again came up with another misleading report which claimed that deal with Reliance was mandatory for Dassault. The report quoted Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Dassault Aviation Loik Segalen to have said, “It was imperative and mandatory for Dassault Aviation to accept this counterpart (offset partnership), in order to seal the deal to sell Rafale jet to India.” The quote appears to have been mischievously quoted since Dassault again had to reiterate though a statement that as Segalen said, it was indeed ‘imperative and mandatory’ for Dassault to accept the offset partnership, nowhere does it mention the offset partner has to be Reliance. In fact, as per French labour laws, any major decision taken by companies which may not lead to new employment generation for French workers, need to be informed to Central Works Council. The above statement by Segalen appears more of a message to the representatives of the union who were present there instead of an insinuation that they were arm-twisted into getting into a contract with Reliance for the contract.

This repeated misleading reports by the French media Mediapart, which were picked up and shared widely by various mainstream media as well as Congress leaders, made a lot of Twitter users wonder about the ulterior motives of the reports. Twitter user @bns5, in a series of tweets, showed how the owner of Mediapart, when the report came out last night, had reached out to certain individuals to spread the message.


He says that as soon as the article by Mediapart was out, the first one to share it was Noopur Tiwari of NDTV.


An article on Plenel from April 2013 quotes a senior French radio journalist describing Plenel as, “vigilante not a journalist…someone who confuses journalism with personal vendettas and crusades.” His former colleagues at Le Monde, where he was an editor once, describe him as ‘tyrant’ and ‘bully’.

In March this year, Naëm Bestandji, a secular feminist activist, has accused Plenel of becoming a groupie of Marwan Muhammad, former director of Collective against Islamophobia in France, CCIF, who according to Bestandji, discriminates against people like him, (French of Maghrebi origin) and insults them in the name of ‘tolerance and anti-racism.’

This brings us to how and why are the mainstream media persons and Congress leaders so quick to believe a white man who seems to be having questionable credentials?

Raghav Bahl claims his companies are clean, but how ‘clean’ are they really?

OpIndia Staff
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Raghav Bahl claims his companies are clean, but how ‘clean’ are they really?

News surfaced this morning that the residential premises of The Quint’s founder, Raghav Bahl, and the office premises of digital media portal The Quint have been raided by Income Tax sleuths.

Before the facts even came to the fore, Raghav Bahl had already released a statement to the Editor’s Guild of India. Interestingly, almost simultaneously, Shekhar Gupta who heads the Editor’s Guild also tweeted, as usual, calling it an act to stifle free speech.


Shekhar Gupta asserted that these Income Tax raids are to ‘intimidate’. He said the government should explain themselves otherwise it would look like they are targeting critical media.

Raghav Bahl in this statement released to the Editor’s Guild said that they are a ‘fully tax compliant’ company and they will provide all financial documents. In a threatening tone, Bahl also asserted that if other documents that might have sensitive information pertaining to their journalism is touched, they will take “strong recourse”.


However, while Bahl has asserted that he was and has been fully ‘tax compliant’, and he may as well be, one recalls Bahl’s name cropping up in the Paradise papers.

It is reported that the US conglomerate Viacom entered into a 50-50 joint venture with Raghav Bahl’s Network 18 to set up Viacom 18 which, in turn, launched various subsidiary companies that were incorporated by Appleby in different tax havens. This joint venture and the subsequent subsidiaries which were launched allegedly in tax havens happened in the year 2007. It is worthy to note that when this transaction allegedly took place, Raghav Bahl was the managing director of the Network 18 before it changed ownership to Reliance in 2014.

What was widely covered in the media, Appleby data showed various links between Network 18 and 4 offshore entities. Three of these entities were listed in the balance sheet.

The report says:

“Bahl, as Director of the Network18, handled the affairs of the two other offshore companies and submitted applications for de-registration. The first application was for Network 18 Holdings Ltd which, on 19 April 2012 passed a special resolution. On 30 April, 2012, another application was filed for the company in the Cayman Islands, where it was registered in 2006, to be de-registered “by way of continuation” in Mauritius. The second company for which the de-registration process was undertaken by Bahl was Web 18 Holdings Ltd. This company, also registered in 2006, made a request to Appleby on 18 September 2012, for being taken off the registry of Cayman Islands and shifted “by way of continuation” to Cyprus.”

Raghav Bahl’s name also came up in the INX media scam briefly.

As per a report on the Statesman, “As per the income tax report, two media firms – INX Media and Network 18 — had in 2008 allegedly bribed Karti for getting FIPB approvals. At that time, INX Media was co-owned by Peter Mukherjee, and Network 18 that runs TV channels like CNN-IBN and news portals was controlled by Raghav Bahl, who now runs the Quint website”.

The CBI had filed an FIR in the INX scam case in May 2017 alleging that Karti had received a bribe of Rs 3.5 crores from the Peter and Indrani Mukherjee owned INX Media Pvt Ltd. INX Media was later named as 9X.

Today, the Enforcement Directorate has reportedly attached properties and bank deposits of Karti Chidambaram worth around Rs.54 crores in connection with the INX Media case.

The specific reasons for the ongoing raids against Raghav Bahl are still unclear, however, there have been sufficient speculations around his financial dealings in the past.

ED attaches Karti Chidambaram’s assets worth crores, he calls it ‘bizarre and outlandish’

OpIndia Staff
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ED attaches Karti Chidambaram’s assets worth crores, he calls it ‘bizarre and outlandish’

The Enforcement Directorate has reportedly attached properties and bank deposits of Karti Chidambaram worth around Rs.54 crores in connection with the INX Media case.


The assets attached were from India, England and Spain. Furthermore, as per reports, properties of Peter and Indrani Mukerjea were attached by the ED in connection with the same case. The properties that were attached include bungalows in Kodaikanal, Ooty and Delhi, and a tennis club in Spain.

Karti Chidambaram appeared defiant in wake of the action against him by the ED. He said in a tweet, “A bizarre and outlandish ‘Provisional Attachment Order’ which is not based on law or facts but on crazy conjectures. This is meant only to grab ‘headlines’. The ‘order’ will not withstand judicial scrutiny, review or appeal. Will approach the appropriate legal forum.”

Utkarsh Anand, legal editor of CNN News18 has tweeted a list of the properties reportedly attached by ED.


The alleged INX Media Scam revolves around allegations that Peter and Indrani Mukherjee received a foreign investment of about Rs 300 crores violating existing norms. It is alleged that Karti, the son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, used his influence in the ministry to get clearance for INX Media, owned by the Mukherjes, from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. Karti was arrested by the CBI in connection to the case earlier this year before being released on bail later.

381 Projects of Slum Rehabilitation Authority approved under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana

OpIndia Staff
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381 Projects of Slum Rehabilitation Authority approved under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana

In Mumbai 381 projects of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority have been approved by the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) committees at the Centre this year, reports DNA.

Bringing the Slum Rehabilitation Authority under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in April this year has finally borne fruits. A PMAY Cell was established by the SRA in May 2018  for the implementation of the PMAY Scheme. The Scheme comprises of 381 projects which have received the nod of both the State Level Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (SLSMC) and the committee headed by Secretary, Housing and Urban Affairs (HoUA).

As per SRA policy, 1.24 lakh tenements will be allotted free of cost to owners of huts constructed before January 1, 2000, who have not claimed subsidy under PMAY. According to data available from SRA, 47,984 tenements under PMAY will be allocated at construction cost to the owners of huts constructed between January 1, 2000-January 1, 2011. 28,079 additional tenements, which will be available at construction cost, are being constructed.

According to a senior official from SRA’s PMAY cell, they do not claim any subsidy for the free houses but they are part of the target and are included in it. “All future projects will be included in the PMAY scheme. Currently, we have 381 projects,” he said.

Under PMAY, the beneficiary gets a benefit of Rs 2.5 lakh, which includes both centre and state’s contribution. To become a beneficiary under this scheme, one can’t have a pucca house anywhere in the country.

Since the BJP led NDA came to power in 2014, 45.86 lakh houses for the poor in urban areas have been approved under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (urban). The aim is to reportedly construct 1.2 crore houses for the poor living in urban areas by 2022.

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