In fact, PMAY is a centrally sponsored programme which the Centre and the state have shares in the ratio of 60:40. It was rolled out after due deliberations by the Union Cabinet.
The BJP says that there should be only one logo and it is the logo of PMAY. On the other hand, the BJD justifies the co-branding saying that the state government has 40 per cent share in the PMAY houses and it provides Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 incentives for early completion of the houses.
However, going by the provisions of the scheme and statute book, co-branding concept appears quite absurd, illegal and illogical.
According to the statute book, Centrally-sponsored schemes are executed with the consent of the state governments. The scheme can go only with the Union Government’s logo and cannot be co-branded. It’s not that the Odisha government is ignorant about the arrangement.
In fact, Odisha Chief Secretary Suresh Mohapatra had in 2021 written a letter (No. 5037/PR&DW dated 12.03.2021 ) to the Union rural development seeking co-branding of the PMAY-Gramin houses.
In response to the Chief Secretary’s letter, the Union secretary Nagendra Nath Sinha said the scheme was approved by the Union cabinet as a centrally-sponsored scheme and approved as PMAY-G for the Budget in the Parliament.
“The scheme is to be implemented in its original form and under the name of PMAY-G. The scheme is to be implemented as such and under the agreed funding pattern, and no other name can be appended. In view of the same, as informed earlier that the Union ministry had conveyed to the States/UTs in the past to use only the official logo of PMAY-G,” Mr Sinha wrote to the Odisha chief secretary on March 30, 2021.
On the contribution of matching share by the state, the Union secretary said, “The contribution of minimum state share from state resources is a commitment by the state government for implementation of Centrally Sponsored Scheme and it does not confer the rights to the State Government for use of any other logo other than PMAY-G. This will also lead to misinterpretation of the scheme among the PMAY-G beneficiaries about the benefits of the scheme.”
There are no instances of other states using its log alongside the PMAY logo.
