Bhubaneswar: Accusing the state government of misleading the public by giving incorrect information regarding construction of pucca houses under Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana (BPGY), Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Friday requested the Union Rural Development and and Panchayati Raj Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to probe the matter.
Pradhan has written a letter to Tomar in this regard after the state government claimed that it has constructed 17 lakh kuchha houses in rural areas under the BPGY.
He said during the Rath Yatra the state government came up with misleading advertisements claiming that it has completed over 17 lakh pucca houses for the rural poor under BPGY in the past four years.
However, the state government’s website states that only 2.8 lakh houses have been built under schemes exclusively sponsored by the state government such as the BPGY. BPGY (Mining) and Nirrnan Shramik Pucca Ghar Yojana, he pointed out.
“I would like to highlight the misrepresentation of facts regarding rural housing schemes by Odisha government and, the appropriation of work done under rural housing schemes launched by the Central government as exclusive state government sponsored schemes,” he said.
Earlier, in 2016 also the state government had made a specious statement that it had constructed 10 lakh Biju pucca houses for rural poor. But, when the matter was probed in Odisha Assembly in December 2016, it shied away saying that the information regarding rural houses built under various schemes was in the process of being compiled, the Union Minister said.
“Most regrettably, there are allegations of partisanship and irregularities in the allotment of houses under rural housing schemes,” he further said.
The BJP leader alleged that the beneficiaries are being forced by the state to put up BPGY logos on their houses built under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana -Grarmeen.
Stating this is an old tactic of the ruling party in the state to start schemes akin to the Central schemes and appropriate credit, Pradhan said this practice is against the spirit of cooperative federalism.
He urged Tomar to send a high-level inquiry team to Odisha to probe into actual dwelling units constructed under various rural housing schemes.
Not only this, the BJD government also hijacked the subsidised rice scheme and 108 Ambulance scheme of Modi government. It has also announced the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana to sideline the Ayushman Bharat programme, he alleged.
Reacting strongly to this letter of Pradhan, BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patro said, “By making such statements he is raising question marks on the ability of Union Minister Tomar. Among the several awards given by Centre to state for its achievement, BPGY is one.”
“Why is he (Pradhan) so intolerable? While Odisha is on the path of progress, it appears to Pradhan and BJP that the state is lagging behind. Hence to remain in public glare, he is resorting to such wrong propaganda,” Patara said.
Stating that it has become a regular habit of the Union Minister to poke his nose into the affairs of other ministries, the BJD leader appealed to Pradhan not to make such baseless and wrong allegations.