Registered construction workers to get pucca houses

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided to provide pucca houses to all registered construction workers.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate the new scheme in the state capital on February 20.

A decision to this effect was taken at a high level meeting presided over by the chief minister at the State Secretariat here on Saturday.

Talking to newsmen after the meeting, Labour minister Prafulla Mallik said the state government would invest Rs one lakh on a pucca house for each registered construction worker. The Labour department would provide the money to the Panchayati Raj department, which would take up the construction work after identifying genuine beneficiaries.

“The new scheme will benefit about 12 lakh registered construction workers of the state,” he added.

The minister, however, clarified that only construction workers having no pucca houses and not allotted houses under any other scheme of the state government will be eligible for the pucca houses under the new scheme.