“Congratulations on your new house built through Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Mission. I believe that you will keep your house and surroundings clean.” When Soumya Krishnakumar received this letter from the Union government in August 2019, she was perplexed. The 33-year-old does not own a house – whether under the Awas Yojana or otherwise. In fact, she lives alone in a rented, one-room shed, and has been struggling to get a home under a government scheme for several years. So this letter from the government, congratulating her for a house that never was, came as cruel irony.
And over six months after she got that letter, and approached the system once again to find out where this imaginary house was, Soumya is still looking for answers – from both the Union and the Kerala state governments, reports Jvin Tootu of Manorama News. It is to be noted that, at the same time Soumya’s story is coming out to the public, the Kerala government is celebrating the completion of construction of two lakh houses for the homeless.
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Mission is a Union government scheme which gives financial assistance to people who don’t own homes in the country to build one. “I have never even applied for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Mission,” Soumya, who works as a home nurse, tells TNM.
For many years now, Soumya has been running from pillar to post in government offices to get a piece of land a house of her own, under state government schemes. Left by her husband years back, Soumya lives alone, struggling to meet the requirements of day to day life. Her two children, studying in classes 5 and 6, stay at a children’s home in Chalakudy.
“In 2012, I applied for the Kerala government’s Zero Landless project while living at Nadakkavu in Ernakulam, under the Udayamperoor gram panchayat. Some officials had contacted me and I had submitted my identity proof for that. But following that, there were no updates on it for two years,” she says.
In the following year, Soumya had to undergo certain medical procedures. “I was not well for about three years following this, as some surgeries had to be done for my throat. It was again in 2015, that I started to move to get housing aid. In 2015, I met the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy requesting a house of my own. Seeing my pathetic condition, he gave me a recommendation letter and with it I went to the Ernakulam Collectorate. It was then, an official in the Collectorate told me after checking files that my name was actually listed in the Zero Landless beneficiaries list. But I was not informed about this by my local body,” she said.
According to Soumya, in 2017, she was informed by an officer in Kanayannur Taluk that Rs 4 lakh has been sanctioned in her name to construct a house. “But since I did not own land and the money was meant to construct a house, I was told by our Councillor that I cannot get this money. In a meeting held with the officials of Taluk, the Councillor, and other beneficiaries who were allotted similar aid, I was made to sign a paper saying that I do not want the money as I don’t possess land to build a house. Ever since, there had been no update about anything from the officials. And now I have received a letter from the Centre stating that I should take good care of the newly constructed house. Where is the house? Who availed the aid in my name? I don’t know what to do,” says Soumya.
After receiving the letter from the Union government, Soumya met the District Collector stating the matter. “I wrote a letter to the Centre explaining things and also met Ernakulam District Collector. Though the Collector told me he will probe into it, nothing has happened so far,” she says.