Bolangir: At a time when the district administration has been lauded at both the state and national level for its commendable job in ensuring rural housing facilities for poor, vigilance action on alleged misuse of funds under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana (PMGAY) has raised doubts over the success of the scheme.
Bolangir had won national award for excellence in implementing PMGAY for the financial 2016-17 but ground zero reports by OTV have unearthed a completely different picture of rural housing.
Alleged misappropriation of funds and improper identification of needy poor beneficiaries have somewhat crippled the progress of scheme. There are people living in kutcha dilapidated houses with broken thatched roofs and are yet to get any benefits of the scheme while other needless people have been made beneficiaries leading to extensive misuse of the scheme.
“Government declares that it is providing the houses for poor people so we hoped to avail pucca houses but we are yet to get any benefits. Moneylenders have availed such benefits since they are able to bribe but we are poor,” Sadhu Rana, a local resident lamented.
The Vigilance recently arrested the Gram Rozgar Sevak (GRS) of Sihini GP under Belpada block in connection with embezzling scheme funds falsely issued on name of four persons and also caught GRS of Bhadiapali GP under Khaprakhol block red handed while accepting Rs 5000 bribe.
The arrested GRS of Sihini panchayat said, “Why only arrest me? Others including the BDO, Sarpanch, dealing assistants are also involved. Since the Collector pressurises to finish the works, we are hurried to complete the Geo tagging on war footing and so mistakes occur.”
On the other hand, when asked about the issue, the Collector Ashish Thakre said, “Our teams are making all efforts to make sure that needy people are covered under the scheme. Presently around 6000 houses have been built under rural housing scheme and the record is highest in our state as per the latest reports."