KENDRAPARA: For the last three months, a wheelchair-bound woman of Bajapur village in Rajkanika block has been making rounds of the panchayat office for a house under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) but to no avail. Minati Sahoo (28) is entitled to get a house under PMAY but the authorities concerned are reportedly too lazy to include her name in the beneficiary list. Deprived of the housing benefit, the differently-abled woman is forced to live in a dilapidated thatched house with her parents.
“I had approached the panchayat office three months back and requested the Katanabania sarpanch for a house under PMAY. The sarpanch assured me of including my name in the list of beneficiaries. But to my surprise, my name was missing from the list which was published on Saturday,” said Minati.
While Minati’s father is a daily wager, her mother is visually-impaired. Social activist Amarbar Biswal said despite having a paralysed lower body, Minati never let her disability hold her back. She has read up to Class X and energetically moves around in her tricycle. Non-inclusion of her name in the list of beneficiaries is an example of official apathy, he alleged.
Sources said Minati made history when she became the first physically-disabled woman to win the ward member post in the panchayat elections in 2017.The social activist said the National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation provides a maximum loan of up to `50 lakh to physically-challenged persons at 5-9 per cent rate of interest for self-employment. A rebate of one per cent is given to women with disabilities. The authorities concerned should immediately provide Minati with a house and loan, he added.
Katanabania sarpanch Subhasmita Nayak said, “We have selected 92 beneficiaries under the PMAY scheme in the first phase. Minati’s name is in the waiting list and it will be added soon.” Block development officer of Rajkanika Rabi Narayan Acharya admitted that Minati is entitled to get a house under PMAY. “I have directed the panchayat body members to add her name in the second list of beneficiaries,” he said.