Several housing schemes have been launched since the 1980s to benefit below poverty line (BPL) households in the cities and villages. The schemes were meant to give the poor access to a basic human need and provide them a sense of economic security.
Yet, many BPL households—up to 30% of them—interacting with housing departments either paid a bribe, or used a contact to avail services in the past year, according to a 2007 study by the Transparency International India and the Centre for Media Studies. An estimated 1.5 million BPL households paid bribes adding up to Rs156 crore, or just above Rs1,000 on an average.
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The services they availed ranged from allotment of plots, or constructed houses to sanction of financial help and to even get included in the list of people entitled to benefit from programmes such as the Indira Awaas Yojana, said the study.
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