Slum dwellers led by lok Shakti Abhiyan Ganjam district president Madhusudan Sethi held a dharna in front of local MlA RC Chaupatnaik’s residence here protesting against the Union and State Governments’ apathy towards them and demanded the MlA’s resignation for not protecting their interest.
Slum dwellers blew whistles as a mark of their allegation that the MlA doesn’t know about welfare programmes meant for them and, thus, they are being deprived of getting houses under different Government schemes.
“It is very disappointing that MlA has not known about housing schemes meant for slum dwellers. He has been assuring us Governemnt houses for the 10 years,” lamented the agitators.
Mentioning about a letter of the Housing and Urban Development Minister, they alleged that a private company entrusted with construction of houses has delayed the works and committed a funds irregularity of Rs100 crore in the city. They demanded that an impartial investigation be done into this scam.
They lamented that about 90 per cent of beneficiaries of the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and Rajiv Awas Yojana have not been given houses yet.
The slum dwellers demanded that the Government provide land and houses to them in the very slum they now reside.