Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Tuesday submitted a memorandum to Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh demanding sanction of PMAY (Gramin) houses for the Fani affected people and other eligible persons of Odisha.
In the memorandum, the MPs said there are 1.84 lakh families who had lost their houses in the cyclone Fani and are staying in dilapidated houses. These families are otherwise not entitled to avail housing under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin).
Prime Minister, during his visit to Odisha in May 2019, had committed to sanctioning 5 lakhs PMAY (G) houses to cyclone Fani affected families. PMAY-G (Special) houses to these 1.84 lakh families need to be sanctioned and the prerequisite often to hear their name in the permanent wait list (PWL) of PMAY (G) should be waived, they said.
Similarly, the BJD parliamentarians said the state has identified 5.09 lakh eligible families in 16 districts not affected by cyclone Fani through its rural housing (RH) portal.
“These households are predominantly tribals in the tribal areas and KBK (Kalahandia”Balangira”Koraput) districts of western and southern Odisha. The data of these families need to be migrated to the PWL of PMAY (G),” read the memorandum.
The fifth schedule of the Indian constitution provides special protection to these areas as they are tribal-dominated and to facilitate their speedy development. Also, the KBK regions of Odisha have been very challenging and governments have always proactively come forward to help, they said.
“We, the BJD MPs of Odisha, strongly feel that the people of western Odisha, scheduled areas and KBK regions of Odisha should be provided priority focus and houses should be provided to them at the earliest,” the MPs further demanded.
Stating that there might be some more eligible families missed out during survey through Awaas+ and RH portal, the lawmakers urged the Union Minister to open the window of Awaas+ for the entire State for a period of one month to cover the left-out families.
IANS
