BHUBANESWAR: Accusing the BJD government of corruption in allotment of houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), the BJP on Monday asked the State government to come clean on the issue and tell how many ineligible people have cornered the welfare scheme.Estimating the housing scam at Rs 1,000 crore, the saffron party demanded a CBI probe into the scam on the basis of the report of the Central team shared with the government recently.
State BJP president Samir Mohanty said housing assistance of Rs 1.2 lakh each has been disbursed to 98,562 beneficiaries manually by respective block development officers. The amount disbursed manually will be more than Rs 1,000 crore. This was revealed from the data of Awaassoft, the official website that contains details of application status, bank accounts, house and site allotted, house sanctioned and house status.
This has been reported by the Central team from nine blocks of five districts. A thorough probe into the allotment made in 2018 and 2019 will unmask the government which has been accused of selecting beneficiaries on party lines, Mohanty said.He said pucca houses were allotted to the ineligible beneficiaries in Tangi of Khurda district, while funds under the scheme have been granted to people in Niali block for construction of cow shed. In many cases houses are constructed with sub-standard materials with no windows, doors and toilets. Many houses are yet to get the floor and other works done, he added.
He said the BJP will launch a mass movement in all blocks of the State to expose the ruling BJD which is involved in a massive corruption in the rural housing scheme. The party has decided to stage State-wide protests for three days from July 7.The party strongly protested deprival of nine western Odisha districts while making district-wise allotment of the 8.17 lakh houses specifically allotted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the cyclone Fani affected people.