West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari asks 12,000 beneficiaries under rural housing scheme to refund money; here’s why

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday asked 12,000 beneficiaries, who allegedly received housing assistance fraudulently under the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) regime, to refund the money.

Speaking at a press conference, Adhikari said the beneficiaries had been identified and would face legal action, PTI reported. He added, “As stated by Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal, 57,000 fake beneficiaries had applied illegally under the previous government’s Banglar Bari project and were delisted. We have already identified 12,000 among them who received the money and have asked them to return the amount. While 1,000 have returned the money, I ask the rest to do the same.”

He also warned of a CID investigation and departmental action against officials who allegedly colluded with the previous government amid alleged irregularities in the state’s rural housing scheme.

Adhikari said, “Officials who facilitated these beneficiaries in fraudulently obtaining monetary assistance will be identified and action taken against them. We will launch a CID probe.”

Why is the Adhikari government seeking a refund?

The government is seeking a refund after a verification exercise reportedly found that 57,000 people had been illegally included in the beneficiary list of the previous government’s Banglar Bari housing scheme. These names were subsequently removed. Of these, around 12,000 had already received financial assistance despite being deemed ineligible.

Adhikari said, “You must return the money by November 30 and spare yourselves possible legal complications. We will not allow you to retain this money. You have to return it because you are not eligible beneficiaries.”

He also highlighted the discovery of suspected fictitious beneficiaries, whose existence could not be established during field verification. There were also allegations that government funds had been diverted through bank accounts allegedly opened in the names of deceased or relocated individuals.

Bengal govt disburses second instalment of rural housing scheme

The warnings from the West Bengal CM came as the state government disbursed the second instalment of financial assistance under its Paschim Banga Awas Yojana, previously known as the Banglar Bari scheme. On Friday, Adhikari released the second instalment of ₹60,000 each to seven lakh beneficiaries at the state secretariat, Nabanna. The amount will be transferred to their bank accounts. Earlier, one million beneficiaries had received funds under the second instalment.

Officials said the latest disbursement takes the total amount released by the West Bengal government as the second instalment under the current phase of the scheme to ₹10,323 crore. The funds have been released to around 17.21 lakh eligible beneficiaries to help them complete the construction of their houses.

In the first phase, on August 6, the government disbursed approximately ₹6,122 crore to nearly 1.02 million beneficiaries in the state.

Suvendu Adhikari slams Mamata Banerjee-led TMC

At the event, Adhikari also launched a scathing attack on the erstwhile TMC government and accused it of politicising the rural housing scheme for the poor. He said, “They had falsely claimed that 18-19 lakh people covered under their Banglar Bari project would not get money if the BJP came to power.”

He went on to say, “But we proved that wrong as we don’t believe in discriminating on the basis of political affiliation, caste or community.”

The state government’s move to recover the funds and investigate the alleged irregularities marks its latest action to scrutinise the implementation of the rural housing scheme under the previous TMC regime. The CID probe is expected to examine how ineligible beneficiaries were included in the list and whether officials played a role in the alleged misuse of public funds.