Post News Network
Telkoi, Sept 12: A vicious nexus of local people’s representatives and government officials is depriving genuine beneficiaries of housing scheme benefits in the tribal-dominated Telkoi block of Keonjhar, allege locals.
Scores of genuine beneficiaries are losing out on their rightful due, thanks to nepotism and large-scale irregularities. Social activists say the benefits go to well-off people who are willing to grease the palms of officials.
According to a complaint lodged by activists Kailash Pradhan and Laxmidhar Pradhan with the Vigilance department Friday, all it takes to get a house under one’s name is to pay concerned officials a bribe of Rs 20,000, irrespective of whether one qualifies for the scheme or not.
The complainants said every year more than 800 housing units under these schemes are allotted to the block where about 70 per cent of the population living in 22 panchayats belongs to the scheduled tribe community.
However, local people’s representatives and government officials have colluded to deprive weaker sections of their entitlements by allotting the houses to well-off individuals.
Some of the people’s representatives have even got housing units sanctioned in the names of their kith and kin. As a rule, palli sabhas are held in villages to identify and select genuine beneficiaries, but this practice is not being followed at the block level.
Sources said the block was allotted 498 IAY houses and 666 housing units for forest land dwellers and 68 Mo Kudia units in 2013-14. Similarly, 567 IAY houses and 107 BPGY units were sanctioned to the block in 2014-15 while 567 IAY units and 230 BPGY units were made available for the block in 2015-16.
However, only 50 per cent of the IAY houses have been completed in the last three years. The complainants pointed out that many beneficiaries have been allotted houses twice – in 2013-14 as well as in 2015-16. Several heavy vehicle owners in Kaliahat and Jagamohanpur panchayats have grabbed housing units. But scores of poor people living in shanties have not been enrolled under the housing schemes, the social activists, said, demanding a Vigilance probe into these irregularities.
Kailash Pradhan said genuine beneficiaries have been ignored and sought details of the housing distribution in the block.
Block development officer Akhaya Kumar Mallick denied receiving any complaint regarding the irregularities in housing schemes. “We approve the list of beneficiaries which is drawn up by people’s representatives. Regarding the tardy pace of housing projects, we have asked the gram sevak and junior engineers to speed up the work,” Mallick added.
