BALASORE: Balasore ranks last in the State in implementing Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana (BPGY). The scheme was an election promise of the BJD Government. Of the sanctioned 5,548 houses, only 358 houses have been completed in this financial year, which is only 7 per cent of the target.
The housing scheme, launched last year, intends to convert all kuccha houses to pucca houses by 2019 in a mission-mode approach. People from poor socio-economic background, whose names do not figure in the BPL list, are to be allotted house under the scheme.
Even as the district administration has distributed the sanctioned houses in 12 blocks, the slow pace of work has left the authorities worried. More than eight months in the fiscal have passed and it is unlikely that the rest of the houses would be completed in less than four months.
While the cost of single house is Rs 70,000, the money is provided in three instalments - Rs 20,000 in the first phase, Rs 35,000 in the second phase on construction up to lintel level and the rest Rs 15,000 after completion of the house.
Even as the Government has decided to pay incentive of Rs 10,000 to beneficiaries who complete construction of their houses within four months and Rs 5,000 who complete the houses in six months, the move has failed to lure the beneficiaries.
In the last fiscal (2014-15) too, the district did not fare well. Of the sanctioned 2,648 houses under BPGY, so far 1,667 houses have been completed.
Social activist Dilip Kumar Parida said though as per the scheme the Collector should ensure its proper implementation, no remedial measures have been taken even as more than 90 per cent of houses are incomplete.
The district officials, however, blame political interference at the ground level for poor implementation of the housing scheme.
Collector Pramod Kumar Das assured that the scheme will be taken up on war footing. He has directed the BDOs to complete all houses in time.