Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD’s) purported move to let its MLAs and MPs give away eligibility cards for housing schemes from the birth anniversary of Biju Patnaik this year has kicked up a row.
While the party top brass has written to legislators on ways to celebrate the birth anniversary of Patnaik, it has also suggested they distribute eligibility cards to the beneficiaries of housing schemes in rural and urban areas.
The BJP’s state leadership Tuesday attacked the ruling party for diverting work mostly seen as governance and administrative work to party workers. BJP spokesperson Golak Mohapatra said such practices can pave the way for corrupt practices.
“The distribution of eligibility cards by the party workers is a new formula envisioned by the BJD to institutionalize corruption in the housing scheme. Through such works they will make a list of their own choice. This can lead to onset of corrupt practices in housing schemes,” Mohapatra said.
He added that such works were mostly done by government officials and should not be done by party workers. He lambasted the ruling party for interfering with the administrative work of the government.
Earlier, the top brass of the regional party had told its MLAs and MPs on ways to observe the birth anniversary of Biju Patnaik from March 5. The letter to the legislators told them that they would be roped in for distributing eligibility cards to the beneficiaries of housing scheme in rural areas. They were also asked to give land allotment cards to prospective beneficiaries of the Jaga Mission in urban areas.
