Please Don't Answer

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More than 400 families of the Sahariya and Gadiya Lohar tribes in the Baran district of Rajasthan found their applications for free housing under the PMAY scheme rejected because they were found to be landline phone subscribers. 

FYI, under the PMAY housing scheme, the Government of India provides financial aid of INR 1.5 lacs to individuals for building their homes on land that they legally possess. For the landless and homeless, there are schemes where homes of a certain value are provided free of cost. 

PMAY housing schemes clearly specify that families/individuals that own landlines, fridges, phones, motorcycles and property are not eligible. All applications for PMAY housing are scrutinised and then recommended to the authorities by the Gram Panchayat (both the Sarpanch and the Pradhan sign off on it).

Local activists feel this is a gross error as most of the people facing rejections currently live without electric connections, let alone a landline phone.

Sub-divisional officer Dudi quoted to The Times of India, “Once the application is filed manually, the process of scrutinising the application is online. The form is linked with aadhaar card and whether the family owns any of the items that debar them from the scheme is done automatically. It appears that the rejection was made due to some technical error.”