About 500 women belonging to some Self Help Groups (SHGs) on Tuesday gheraoed the office of the Block Development (BDO) at Bari of Jajpur district to protest against the alleged rampant mismanagement and corruption in the programmes undertaken by the authorities under the Odisha Rural livelihood Mission (ORlM) and other developmental projects.
"We gheraoed the block office as the BDO has been ignoring many SHGs while implementing different programmes under the ORlM. large numbers of women SHG members are not getting any benefits from the programmes. We submitted a five-point charter of demands to the BDO and urged him to include women SHG members in all works,” said president of Janhabi Mahila Mahasangh of Bari Jyotshna Nathsharma.
When contacted, Bari BDO Kahnu Charan Mallick asserted, “The authorities are involving women SHG members in all the programmes of ORlM. All the allegations of the SHG members are false."