The BJP on Tuesday referred to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s Monday letter to the Prime Minister thanking him to for approving 8,17,000 Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) houses in Fani cyclone-affected districts and seeking 600,000 more houses for non-cyclone-affected districts and termed the CM’s claims as a bunch of lies.
The party issued an ultimatum to the State Government answer to its allegation of large-scale corruption in PMAY within the 48hrs.
While the State Government failed to enlist a single house in the non-cyclone affected districts out of the sanctioned 8,17,000 houses, where eligible claimants are waiting for years for a roof, only four PMAY houses have been allotted to Jharsuguda. The districts like Bargarh, Balangir, Boudh, Kalahandi, Koraput, Nabarangapur, Rayagada, Sambalpur and Sundargarh have not got a single allotment.
BJP State general secretary Prithiviraj Harichandan said that during 2018-19, the Awas software meant to register PMAY details opened five times and during the period the State Government only uploaded 45,903 names.
“Despite the Central approval to open Awas window during Fani cyclone to upload 3.89 applicants’ names on the State Government’s request, they have utterly failed to upload the names of the eligible beneficiaries,” Harichadan said.
The BJD, on the other hand, rubbished the BJP’s charges and alleged that the BJP is hatching a conspiracy not allot PMAY houses to 600,000 Odias of south and western regions of the State, who are poor, backward and tribal people.“The BJP leader should apologise to the people of the region,” said BJD spokesman Lenin Mohanty.