PM Modi's housing ad features woman who stays in rented shack with 5 others

KOLKATA: On February 14 and 25, an advertisement on the front pages of newspapers such as Prabhat Khabar and Sanmarg featured a beaming Narendra Modi alongside a smiling woman who said she had got a roof over her head thanks to the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

The ad stated that 24 lakh families had become "atmanirbhar", or self-sufficient, thanks to this scheme.

However,  Laxmi Devi, 48, the woman in the ad, lives near Yogayog Bhawan at Kolkata's Chittaranjan Avenue in a rented accommodation for which she has to pay Rs. 500 each month.

Laxmi told the media that she shares the modest house with her sons, their wives, and children. She often has to sleep on the footpath outside, although she sleeps indoors when it rains.

Interestingly, the house that she lives in does not even have a washroom.  Currently, she only has a bed and a refrigerator as furniture.

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Asked about her profession, she revealed that she sweeps a nearby park for Rs 500 a month.

Laxmi said she received Rs 1,500 for three months from the Modi government during the lockdown, but she did not get a house.

Laxmi guessed that the picture could have been during the Babughat Gangasagar Mela, where she was stationed to clean toilets for 10 days.

BJP workers living in Laxmi's area said she had posed for the photo after being told that she would get a house under the scheme if the BJP came to power in the state. He also told us that Laxmi trusted Modi.