Odisha governor Raghubar Das has come across serious lapses in the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G), the Centre’s flagship housing scheme, and found that many people have been deprived of houses.

With elections round the corner, the governor’s exposure of loopholes in the implementation of PMAY-G, has put the government in an awkward situation.

Das visited Kujidihi in Mayurbhanj district on Tuesday and emphasised the importance of prioritising house allotments for those in dire need under the PMAY-G.

Last Monday, a 21-year-old poverty-stricken girl Itishree Jena had lodged a protest with the governor about her family being deprived of a house under the PMAY-G scheme.

The family of Itishree told the governor how her family had failed to get a toilet constructed despite applying for it with the district administration. As a result, she along with her three sisters, a brother, a disabled father, and her mother have to answer nature’s call in the open.

Narrating her ordeal before the governor, Itishree said she had even struggled to arrange a wheelchair for her 53-year-old father Ugrasen Jena who is now disabled owing to paralysis. “We had raised the issue before the Keonjhar collector. But no one listened to us,” Itishree, a graduate, told the governor while he was on a visit to her village Tagarapuvalasa in Keonjhar district on Monday.

Moved by the family’s plight, the governor intervened, offering Rs 25,000 as immediate help. Itishree told The Telegraph, “We are struggling hard even to meet our day-to-day expenses. After we met the Keonjhar collector, the administration gave us Rs 15,000 but it has been silent on the issue of including us in the PMAY-G.”

Itishree said: “I work as a coolie and earn Rs 250 daily. Even my younger sister who is studying in Plus Two also goes with me to work as a coolie. My father gets a pension of Rs 500 per month.”

Itishree, who aims to join the Odisha police, said: “Till four years ago, we had a decent income from my father’s grocery shop. But things changed after my father had a paralytic attack”

The girl said: “Following the governor’s intervention, the local block development officer (BDO) immediately provided a two-wheel chair for my father. But we are still clueless about whether we will get a house under the PMAY Yojana or not.

Keonjhar Sadar BDO Tilotamma Prusty told this newspaper: “The family had availed of an asbestos house 10 years back under a scheme. That’s why their name has not been included in this scheme. As their house is in a dilapidated condition now, we will felicitate the process to ensure that the family gets a house under the PMAY. We will ensure that the family avails Rs 12,000 from the block to construct a toilet.”

However, the family challenged the claim of the BDO and maintained that they had not received any assistance so far under any scheme.

The PMAY-G was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 to provide pucca houses, with basic amenities, to all households and those living in kutcha and dilapidated houses in rural areas by 2024. What’s more significant is that as per the government records more than 19.43 lakh houses have been completed in
Odisha out of 27.23 lakh sanctioned by the state government under the PMAY-G by the end of 2023.