About 120 families of the Maoist-affected Sunabeda and Soseng Panchayats in the district here were allotted work orders for construction of Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) houses under Sunabeda Area Development Programme (SDP) after the Union Ministry of Rural Development finally agreed to include the non-PVTG (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group) households under the project.
Earlier, the Union RD Ministry while sanctioning 6,012 houses under the SDP, had categorically instructed that the fund allocation was made out of five per cent reserved fund for the PVTGs and the fund would be utilised exclusively for construction of IAY houses for the PVTGs, especially the Chakotia Bhunjia community.
The administration had temporarily stopped the construction of houses under IAY, when the Centre restricted the number of house to 301 as per the requirement of houses for Chakotia Bhunjia households. The Centre, however, finally has given the nod for inclusion of the non-PVTG after considering the local situation of left Wing Extremism (lWE). A report was also published in this regard in The Pioneer.
The work orders were distributed in a meeting here on Saturday organized jointly by the district police and the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA).
The meeting was attended by more than 200 people especially women members of Self Help Groups and members of Village Development Committees of the two Panchayats. Superintendent of Police Umashankar Dash and Project Director of DRDA Pradip Naik interacted with people to know their problems and instructed the concerned officials to take immediate steps to address them.
Major concern of the people was the health related, particularly of the women and children. “The medical staff members are not staying in the hospital at Sunabeda. We are also facing trouble as the ambulance given to Sunabeda PHC is not stationed in the centre,” said the women participants.
Other problems of people were related to the non-attendance of teachers in different schools of the plateau. They also complained about the exclusion of APl households from IAY. The PD, DRDA said that the APl households and landless families in the Sunabeda area would also be given work orders under the IAY. The SP requested the CDMO to send the doctor and other medical staffers to open the CHC.
“We have been organizing meetings of women groups and village committees of different villages of the plateau area every month to help the people express their concerns and aspirations and to engage them in the development process,” said the SP.