Fake PMAY order: Spouses of civic chief, councillor held in Kanchi

CHENNAI: The husbands of the Sirumangadu panchayat president and the ward councillor have been arrested for issuing fake Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) orders for the construction of houses to 19 families in their village on Wednesday.

Few months ago, panchayat had identified 19 beneficiaries under the PMAY scheme in Sirumangadu village, situated in Sriperumbudur, Kancheepuram district. As orders to construct the house was issued for all of them, most of them started to construct the house but the money was not provided to them. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana aims to provide affordable housing to the urban poor.

Soon, the villagers went to the Kancheepuram district collector and filed a complaint. The collector, M Aarthi, ordered the Revenue officials to investigate the issue. The Revenue officials found that all the 19 order copies that were provided to them were fake and it was not issued by the government.

Further, during the inquiry, they found that all the other copies were issued by Kanniappan, the husband of the village panchayat president and another person identified as Vasu, husband of a local ward councillor.

Kancheepuram district administration had filed a complaint with the district Crime Branch police and after the inquiry the police found that Kanniappan and Vasu had prepared fake orders and issued them to the villagers. The police arrested both of them and remanded in judicial custody. The police are investigating the motive behind the act. The allegation of bribery is also under probe.