Bhubaneswar: She demolished her own house after getting assurance from the government that she would get a pucca house under the Biju Pucca Ghar Yojna. However, she is yet to get one even being a beneficiary under the scheme.
"Two years ago (2016), the district administration promised me to allot a pucca house. I believed them and demolished my only shelter. But I am yet to get one. Since then, I have no roof over my head,” laments Gayatri Jena of Gilida village under Balasore district.
This is not an isolated case, several beneficiaries under the scheme are feeling betrayed.
The ruling-BJD had set a target to allot 20 lakh pucca houses to people across the State by December 2018. As per reports, only 14,11,280 houses have been constructed so far. To achieve its target, the State government now needs to construct more than 1,000 houses a day.
While it seems like a herculean task looking into the number of houses constructed in the last four years, Panchayati Raj Minister Pradeep Maharathy is confident of achieving the target.
"Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had promised to give pucca houses. We are dedicatedly working on it and sure of meeting the target," said Maharathy.
Taking a dig at the claims of the BJD, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that the State government had set a target to complete work of 1, 68,000 houses by December 2015 but it finished only 57,538 houses.
"It's surprising that the government which couldn't even meet its target in the initial three years is claiming to meet the target in the future. The BJD should accept that its scheme has failed," said BJP spokesperson Golak Mohapatra.