After three years of squabbles between the Centre and the State, around 9.5 lakh beneficiaries of Odisha are going to get houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
The Centre has approved houses for 8 lakh beneficiaries and 1.17 lakh beneficiaries are going to get houses especially under Fani cyclone relief.
For this, the State government has already started the process. As part of this process, lists of beneficiaries will be pasted on the walls of all the Gram Panchayat offices, schools, Anganwadi centres and at strategic locations. If people have grievances, they can drop their complaints in writing in the complaint boxes.
A three-member committee will supervise the progress of work.
But the work order will be issued only after the list of the beneficiaries is finalized at gram sabhas.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) meanwhile threatened to lock all the block offices for an indefinite period if any bogus beneficiary is found.
“The final list should have been pasted by December 20 and the work orders should have been issued by December 31. The State government has delayed the process. They are going to put up the list at Panchayat offices from tomorrow. If the list has names of bogus beneficiaries and doesn’t have genuine beneficiaries, we will lock all the 314 block offices for an indefinite period,” said State BJP General Secretary Prithviraj Harichandan.
In his response, BJD MLA Amar Satapathy said, “The central government is not opening the site. At the same time, they are telling that we have given. They are resorting to the same hide and seek act what they used to do in ration.”
On the other hand, there are many genuine beneficiaries who are still waiting to get a roof on their heads. Ganesh Chandra Mishra of Barabati area in Balasore district is a case in point. The sexagenarian has been doing rounds of government offices but to no avail. The process started by the State government has rekindled his hope of getting a house.
“I hope I will get a house this time,” said Mishra.
“Names of those who were in the waiting list have provisionally been sanctioned. The provisional sanction list will be displayed at all the Panchayat and block offices. Public objection will be invited till January 24. If people find any name in the list as bogus, they can submit their complaints,” said Chief District Development Officer of Balasore, Rabindra Kumar Sahu.