Bhubaneswar: The BJP on Thursday accused the ruling BJD of attempting to suppress the attempts to expose irregularities in allotment of pucca houses under the PM Awas Yojana (PMAY).
Speaking to media persons, here, Odisha BJP president Sameer Mohanty, who led a team of party leaders to Kubera panchayat under Tihidi block of Bhadrak district to take stock of the situation, said they detected gross irregularities in distribution of pucca houses during interaction with the local people.
Mohanty said rich and influential people including BJD workers have been allotted the houses at the cost of the deserving beneficiaries in the block. “We found that names of true beneficiaries under the scheme have been deleted from the list and those of undeserving people included,” he said.
He also alleged that if the beneficiaries raised the issue before the administration, they were harassed by the authorities. In some cases, police have carried out midnight raids on the houses of these people and arrested them, he added.
The BJP leader said prime minister Narendra Modi has been trying to ensure pucca houses to all by 2022 and around 30 lakh houses have been sanctioned to Odisha. But the BJD government in the state has allotted the houses to its party workers depriving the bona fide beneficiaries.
He questioned the state government why no step has been taken against any government official even after a Central team pointed out irregularities in the scheme and demanded to know when those involved in illegal activities will be arrested.
