Jhali Sabar of Chanutmal village in Areda Gram Panchayat of Nuapada district is now happy that she has a pucca house to live in. She got financial assistance of Rs 75,000 under Indira awas Yojana (IAY) to construct a house. “It is like a dream come true for me and my family,” says Jhali. Her husband Nitya - a differently abled person, echoed the same feeling.
Nitya cannot work as his legs are paralyzed. Jhali is the sole earning member of the family with 3 small kids. She was allotted the work order in the financial year 2013-14 with an advance of Rs 30,000 to start the construction work. But, she could not proceed much, as the fund was not sufficient to construct up to plinth level, which was the minimum criteria for release of second instalment. “I failed because, I diverted Rs 4,600 for payment to labourers for weeding in the paddy field and paid Rs 2,000 to the money lender to recover a brass pot mortgaged six months back,” explained Jhali, adding, “ I thought the material supplier would supply me materials on credit, but he did not, so the work stopped.” “Without the help of the block officials, it would not have been possible for me to complete the house” she further stated.
“We gave special attention to such cases. The materials were arranged from the suppliers and the beneficiaries were closely guided to complete construction” said Khariar BDO Niranjan Naik. “It needs close monitoring of progress on case to case basis,” he added. There are a large number of beneficiaries in the district like Jhali, who neither have sheds above their heads to live nor have any assured source of living. Such people are the real beneficiaries of the scheme, and it becomes our responsibility to help such beneficiaries from all corners, said Naik.
It can be roughly said that at least eight to ten per cent of the beneficiaries in the district are there who would not have completed the construction, had there been negligence in supervision and monitoring on day to day basis. In some cases, there are also failures. Some beneficiaries, to construct a big house, have extended the size of the plinth area. They stopped the construction after the funding exhausted. “But such cases are limited to less than 5 per cent, says an official of Sinapali block.
It is true, because, the State figures reveal that Nuapada district is far ahead of other in achieving the target under IAY. It has taken first position in the implementation of IAY for the year 2013-14. The district administration has been informed about this achievement in a Video Conferencing (VC) with the Chief Minister, held on Wednesday.
District Collector of Nuapada, Jaykumar V, DRDA, Project Director Pradip Kumar Naik and Block Development Officers of the district were present. “We stood first in the State by achieving 84 per cent of the target and the whole credit goes to the BDOs and the staff members who worked hard day in and day out to achieve the targets” said Jaykumar. It is sheer perseverance and sincerity of the field staff to monitor the activities at field level, which made this possible, he added.
The target for construction of IAY for the district for 2013-14 was 2,209 out of which 1,861 houses have already been completed. Khariar block of the district has taken the first position in the State by achieving 100 per cent target followed by Boden, Nuapada and Komna blocks respectively. The district has also been appreciated by the State authority for taking first position in achieving target in person days generation in MGNREGS, Food Security survey, socio-economic caste census and grievance redressal.