The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said it will hold a 'padyatra' in Chhattisgarh against the government for denying the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) to the poor. The other issue it wants to flag is religious conversion.
State BJP President Arun Sao said BJP workers have cover 4,993 panchayat villages out of 11,000 in the state and found that 3.5 lakh beneficiaries had applied for PMAY.
In three years since the scheme started in 2015, more than six lakh houses were constructed in Chhattisgarh. It includes 60 to 200 houses in each village, he told the media.
He added that 16 lakh PMAY work was not undertaken due to lack of state government share after the Congress came to power in 2018.
Panchayat and Rural Development Minister T.S. Singh Deo raised the issue. He relinquished his portfolio stating he cannot give any justification to the people regarding the non-fulfilment of the scheme.
On religious conversion, Sao said Bastar was perched on a volcano. Even the Sukma Superintendent of Police and Bastar Commissioner had intimated the state government on the issue but no action was initiated.