A village level BJP leader allegedly committed suicide in Etawah district in Uttar Pradesh because he didn’t get a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana though police claimed he took the extreme step because of a family dispute.
Pramod Kumar Yadav alias Bhura, 35, Saifai block secretary of the BJP, consumed poison on Monday. He was rushed to the Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Saifai, where he died during treatment.
BJP’s Saifai district president Ajay Pratap Singh Dhakre told reporters that Bhura was trying to get a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana — Gramin for the last two years.
“He was disillusioned because he was unemployed and didn’t have a house of his own. He was trying for the last two years to get a house under the PM Awas Yojana,” Dhakre said.
Bhura leaves behind his wife and two children, who live in a rented house in Nagla Safi area of Saifai, 230km west of Lucknow.
Chandra Sen Yadav, station house officer of Saifai, claimed that Bhura committed suicide because of a family dispute.
“There was some dispute in his family and so he committed suicide. His body was handed to his family members after post-mortem. An inquiry is going on,” said the police officer.
Saroj Devi, wife of the deceased, said, “He was in the BJP for the last four years. Two years ago, he had applied for a house under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana but his application was rejected on Saturday. We were in a financial crisis because he was unemployed.”
Previously known as Indira Awas Yojana, a social welfare programme for the poor, its name was changed in 2015 to Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana — Gramin. A similar scheme was launched for the urban poor in the same year.
An officer of the rural development department in Etawah said on the condition of anonymity that Bhura didn’t get a house under the scheme because for the 30,000 applicants, there were only 3,000 houses ready.
“We are in the process of allotting houses to the beneficiaries. Maybe he would have got a house at a later stage,” said the officer.
