With an eye on the upcoming election the central government had announced the Rajiv Awas Yojana for providing affordable homes to slum dwellers residing in urban areas. On the other hand, the common man is unaware about how to avail the benefits of this scheme and which officials to be contacted. What is the use of the government sponsored schemes if citizens are unable to derive benefits out of it? The UPA government is already wasting the tax-payers hard earned money by spending crores of money on the welfare schemes announced by it. Will the newly launched scheme be implemented effectively or will it just remain on paper?
When AV spoke to people about the Rajiv Awas Yojana many of them were unaware about it. Vinod Suhar, a Santacruz resident said, “I have heard that slum residents will be provided affordable homes. However, I don’t know how to apply for this scheme. Till date no official has arrived at my house for explaining about this scheme.”
Hari Chavan, a Borivali resident said, “I heard about this scheme but don’t know how I will avail its benefits. Nobody came forward to provide guidance to me about this scheme.”
Sonali Patil, a housewife from Kandivali said, “I am unaware about the Rajiv Awas Yojana and don’t know how to utilise this scheme. Nobody has provided any guidance to me about this scheme.”
Akhilesh Tiwari, a Malad resident said, “The government is only interested in introducing new schemes but they are not creating awareness about it. I came to know about this scheme after you informed me about it.”
Suhas Kutadakar a Dahisar resident said, “It is the responsibility of the government to guide citizens about how to utilize this scheme.”
Rajeev Singh an Andheri resident said, “I have heard about this scheme but I am unaware about its objectives. I merely know slum dwellers will be provided affordable homes but don’t know more about it.”
Sangeeta Pawar a Goregaon resident said, “I had watched the Rajeev Awas Yojana advertisement aired on television which mentioned that cities would become slum free. But I don’t how the government is planning to implement this scheme.”
On the flip side, Congress party leaders denied that people are unaware of this scheme. They were confident that people will be benefitted out of this scheme.
Krishna Hegde, Congress MLA from Vile Parle said,“People residing in slum areas are educated and they are aware about how to utilise these schemes. When the SRA scheme was announced then several people residing in slums derived benefit out of it. We are airing advertisement in media for creating awareness among people about this scheme.”
Janardhan Chandurkar, Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president said, “Everyone is aware about the Rajiv Awas Yojana and many other schemes announced by the government. We are also providing guidance to people about the utilization of the scheme.”
Sachin Sawant, Congress spokesperson said, “People know about the scheme through the advertisement aired on television and news. Party workers are creating awareness about the scheme by interacting with people. If people have any doubts they can directly contact our party workers.”
The Rajiv Awas Yojana was launched in June 2011 in two phases the preparatory phase for a period of two years which ended in June 2013 and implementation phase. Subsequently, 33 slum clusters were identified and tenders were passed for carrying out socio-economic, biometric and technical survey.
