GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL
HOUSING DEPARTMENT, P & W BRANCH
NEW SECRETARIAT BUILDING, 1st FLOOR, A BLOCK
1, K.S. ROY ROAD, KOLKATA-700001
No. 02-H1/HO-13037(11)/3/2023 Dated, Kolkata, the 03rd January, 2024
MEMORANDUM
The Government in the Housing Department has been implementing the ‘CHAA SUNDARI’ Housing Scheme for providing pucca dwelling houses to the permanent tea garden workers who do not possess pucca house by way of allotment through construction of dwelling units on lands in the tea gardens. However, there are certain group of such tea garden workers who own small parcels of land or who have been allotted land under tea garden patta or have small and/or dilapidated dwelling units of their own in the tea garden land and as such these workers are not able to move to the newly built ‘CHAA SUNDARI’ dwelling units.
Therefore, it has been decided to introduce ‘CHAA SUNDARI EXTENSION’ Scheme with the objective to provide financial assistance to such poor tea Garden workers for the construction of a pucca house (minimum of 25 Sqm. area) with basic amenities. Financial assistance of Rs. 1.20 lakh per beneficiary will be provided to the eligible beneficiaries from the State fund. Pucca house will be constructed by the beneficiary with or without his/her own contribution in addition to the financial assistance.
1. Proposed Name of the Scheme:
‘CHAA SUNDARI EXTENSION’
2. Key Features of the Scheme:
i. The Scheme will be implemented by the Panchayat & Rural Development Department of this Government, who will act as the nodal Department, with the funds provided by the Housing Department.
ii. The Scheme will benefit retiring/retired employees of the tea garden concerned or long time occupiers of tea garden land who have been provided homestead patta by the Government on tea garden resumed land.
iii. The minimum unit size of the house to be constructed under this Scheme will be 25 square meters.
iv. Rs 1.20 lakh will be provided through Bank / Post Office Account of the beneficiary in three instalments.
v. Beneficiary will construct the house as per his own plan.
vi. The sum allotted may also be used for extension of the already existing house of the beneficiary provided that the added portion is at least 25 sqm in area.
vii. The Beneficiary must complete the construction of his house within a period of one year from the date of initial funding.
3. Identification and Selection of Beneficiaries:
A. Eligibility Criteria:
i. The beneficiary should be retiring/retired employees of the tea garden concerned or long time occupiers of tea garden land who have been provided homestead patta by the Government on tea garden resumed land. The list of such beneficiaries will be prepared by the District Magistrates concerned.
ii. The beneficiary has in his possession the required plot of land with ownership documents etc. (including patta from the District Administration) in the tea Garden area.
iii. The beneficiary does not own any pucca house in the tea garden area or owns a house of less than 25 sqm plinth area.
B. Exclusion Criteria for the Scheme will be:
i. Family already has a durable Pucca house having more than 25 square meters plinth area or more.
ii. Any member of the family of the beneficiary is a government employee in permanent employment / retired government employee of Central/ State Government, Statutory Bodies, Government Undertakings, Panchayats, Municipal Corporations/ Municipalities, Local Bodies, teaching and non teaching employees of Government aided Educational Institutions etc. receiving regular salary/ pension.
iii. The family has previously been benefited from any housing scheme of the Government.
4. Administrative Arrangements:
The Panchayat and Rural Development Department will be the Nodal Department of the Government for implementation of this Scheme. The Funds for the Scheme will be provided by the Housing Department out of their state budget account.
At the State Level a Task Force headed by the Secretary, P&RD will be formed which may also include representatives from the Departments of Land & Land Reforms, Labour, Commerce & Industry, Power, PHE, Housing and North Bengal Development.
At District and Block level, Committees headed by DM and BDO respectively will be formed. ADMs will be assigned for Sub-divisions and Dy. Magistrates will be assigned for the Blocks for close monitoring.
5. Enquiry & Identification of Beneficiaries:
Applications will be invited by the District Magistrates from eligible beneficiaries and field enquiry will be conducted for identifying beneficiaries. District Magistrate shall ensure formation of field level teams for house-to-house verification of the applicants and prepare a list of final beneficiaries. Block Level Committee shall propose the list of eligible households/ beneficiaries to the District Level Committee for final approval & sanctioning of fund. Housing Department will place the funds to the Districts as per the advice of the Panchayat and Rural Development Department.
6. Process Flow:
i. The eligible persons will apply for housing assistance and submit it to the Block Development Office / survey team / camp office.
ii. Document required for Application
- Bank / Post Office Account Detail
- EPIC / Ration Card (if available)
- Copy of Aadhar Card (along with consent form)
- SC/ST/OBC Certificate (if applicable)
- Mobile number of the beneficiary
- Copy of homestead patta provided by the Government on tea garden resumed land
iii. The eligibility criteria will be verified by the Block Level Committee before sending it to the district authority for final approval.
iv. A sanction letter will be issued to the beneficiary by the District Magistrate.
v. The District Authority will transfer the funds to the beneficiary’s bank account / Post Office Account directly.
vi. The Housing Department will allocate the funds to the district as per their requirements on the advice of the Panchayat and Rural Development Department.
vii. The construction of houses by the beneficiaries will be inspected by the Block officials. The 1st instalment of Rs. 60,000/- will be released as advance. On completion of construction up to the Windowsill level, 2nd instalment of Rs. 40,000/- will be released to the beneficiary. The 3rd instalment of Rs. 20,000/- will be released after full completion of the house.
viii. Collection of photograph and Geotagging will be done after house completion by the Block Level Committee.
ix. Services of the Awass Bandhu / facilitator/ any other village-level worker will be utilised for inspection and monitoring of the house construction. For inspection and monitoring, they may be given an amount of Rs. 300/- from Admin fund for each completed house. This remuneration will be paid to them after ensuring completion of the house by the beneficiary.
x. The house shall be constructed by the beneficiary himself/herself. No contractor shall be engaged by the District/ Block for this purpose.
xi. In the case of eligible but landless beneficiary residing within the tea Garden, necessary action should be taken by the district administration to provide them patta in the Tea Garden area before sanction of funds under this scheme.
7. Fund Management:
Required funds will be placed by the Housing Department with the DMs who in turn will sub allot the same to the BDOs. Fund transfer will be made by the BDO to the beneficiary’s account directly. Separate books of accounts shall be maintained by the Departments as well as the Districts.
8. IT arrangements:
Enquiry and registration of the households will be done through a dedicated portal. Geo tagging, three stages photograph, credit of instalments etc. will be uploaded on the portal.
9. Convergence:
i) Toilets may be provided under Mission Nirmal Bangla by P&RD Department
ii) Drinking water may be provided under Jal Swapna scheme of PHED
iii) Family members may be brought under Anandadhara of P&RD Department
iv) Electricity connection to the household may be provided by WBSEDCL
v) Other Social infrastructure may be provided by concerned departments
10. IEC activities:
Designing of logo, publicity material & awareness generation etc. will be done for publicity. Service of I&CA Department will be utilised for wide publicity.
11. Grievance Redressal Mechanism:
All the grievances are to be redressed by the Block and District administration through specially formed committees. In addition, grievances received through Sarasari Mukhyamantri, PGRS, State Control Room, District Control Room etc. will also be taken care of.
12. Transparency & Accountability:
a. Aadhar (along with consent form), Mobile and bank Account details will be collected during enquiry for registration.
b. Social audit, scheme audit by chartered firm, AG audit will be done.
c. Sanctioned list will be displayed in the district website, DM/SDO/BDO and GP office.
d. Scheme name and logo to be displayed in every house (CIB)
Inspection teams will be formed at Block, Sub-Division and District level. Independent State Level Monitors will also inspect the scheme during execution.
This has concurrence of Group-N, Finance Department vide their U.O. No. 4010 dated 21/12/2023 and Group-F, Finance Department vide their UO NO. Group F/2023-2024/0524 dated 22/12/2023 and has approval of the State Cabinet, Government of West Bengal vide Cabinet Secretariat U/O No. CAB(D)- 868 dated 30/12/2023.
B. P GOPALIKA
Chief Secretary to the Government of West Bengal