New Delhi: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Parliamentary Party members on Tuesday met Union Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Giriraj Singh and demanded sanction of PMAY (Gramin) houses for the Fani affected people and other eligible persons.
The Governing Party of Odisha MPs from both the Houses of Parliament also submitted a memorandum along with the recent letter of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to the Prime Minister on this issue.
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 districts of western and southern Odisha. The data of these families need to be migrated to the permanent wait list (PWL) of PMAY (G), the MPs said in their 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 Parliamentarians demanded.
As per the memorandum, 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 normal PMAY (G) house.
The PM, during his visit to Odisha in May, 2019, had committed to sanction 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 PWL of PMAY (G) should be waived.
“There might be some more eligible families missed out during the survey through Awaas+ and RH portal. Window of Awaas+ should be opened for the entire State for a period of one month to cover these families,” the MPs further urged the Union Minister.
Earlier Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik sought kind intervention of the Prime Minister to sanction 1.84 Lakh PMAY-G (Special) houses to the cyclone FANI affected families, to migrate 5.09 Lakh data from the RH portal to PWL of PMAY(G) and to allow opening of Awaas+ window for the entire State for a period of one month. This will be a step towards achieving shelter security to all, pointed out CM Mr.Patnaik in his letter.