More than 90% of the households surveyed in Wokha district were not aware of the money they are entitled to receive under the Indira AwaasYojana (IAY) flagship scheme while 85% of the households have not received their registration numbers.
These, and other startling facts, have been brought to light in a survey conducted as part of a European Union (EU) funded project on ‘Improving access to information and delivery of public service schemes in remote and backward districts of NE states’.
Carried out in the later part of 2015, the survey which covered 28 villages from 2 blocks of Wokha district also found that most of the problems faced by public were related to approval of application and construction of the house even as 30% of all beneficiaries suggested that increasing accountability on part of the implementers would help in increasing the scheme’s efficiency.
This EU-funded project covers seven backward districts across five NE states, namely, Goalpara and Cachar in Assam, Ri-Bhoi in Meghalaya, Churachandpur and Chandel in Manipur, Lawngtlai in Mizoram, and Wokha in Nagaland. The project is being implemented by Paris-based French NGO Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) along with Guwahati-based North East India Committee on Relief and Development (NEICORD) which in partnership with local NGO Team Metamorphosis (TM) is responsible for field implementation, Bangalore-based Public Affairs Center (PAC) which is tasked with the research component, and the Guwahati-based Nanda Talukdar Foundation (NTF) as its media advocacy component.
The project seeks to achieve three main results, namely, to encourage demand for improved service delivery, improved access to and quality of public services particularly for the most marginalized and women, and to enhance transparency of service providers for 10 central government flagship schemes: IAY, JSSK, ICDS, MDM, MGNREGA, RKVY, NBA/TSC, RGGVY, NSAP, and TPDS.
The survey also found that for 70% of households, their names as beneficiaries were announced at Village Council meetings; only 50% of households received sanctioned work order after registration; 40% of households took between 6-12 months to complete the construction; around 20% of all houses are still incomplete; and that 80% of the households started construction before receipt of first installment.
IAY is a flagship programme of the ministry of rural development launched in 1996 as part of a larger strategy of rural poverty eradication. It is a public housing scheme for houseless families and those living in dilapidated and kutcha houses with a component for provision of housing sites to landless families. The objective of IAY is primarily to help construction/upgrading of houses SC/ST members, to free up bonded labourers and other non-ST/SC BPL rural households by providing them financial assistance.
Under IAY, a beneficiary is entitled to receive assistance for construction of a new house @ Rs. 70,000/- per unit for plain areas Rs. 75,000/- for hilly/difficult areas with an added opportunity of availing a top-up loan of up to Rs. 20,000/- under the Differential Rate of Interest (DRI Scheme) from any Nationalised Bank at an interest rate of 4% per annum; assistance @ Rs. 15,000/- for upgradation from kutcha house to pucca/semi pucca house; and provision for house sites @ Rs. 20,000/- (Relevant District Collectors identify land available and allot land to eligible landless families. Land selected must be fit for house construction in terms of connectivity, availability of drinking water, access to public services, etc).