PMAY Protest: Bengal BJP Activists Block Hooghly Road

GG News Bureau

Kolkata, 8th Jan. BJP activists on Sunday blocked a road in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, demanding the removal of a BDO for alleged irregularities in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, even as two Central teams visited the state to investigate allegations of malpractices in PMAY house allotment.

Around 100 BJP activists gathered on the national highway at Dadpur in Hooghly district, blocking traffic with slogans such as ‘Chor chor TMC chor’ and ‘BDO Dur Hato’ (BDO go away).

According to a district official, they left the area after half an hour due to police intervention, and no untoward incident occurred.

A district BJP leader claimed that the names of owners of two-story and three-story buildings in Dadpur and Polba were included in a list prepared by the district administration for deserving people under PMAY, while those living in thatched houses were left out at the request of local TMC leaders.

TMC state spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that while the party’s National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee has stated that there will be zero tolerance policy for those involved in irregularities in the Awas Yojana scheme, the BJP is attempting to incite people in the name of protests and foment trouble ahead of the panchayat polls.

Ghosh responded to the recent visits of central teams to Purba Medinipur and Malda districts, saying, “we hope they will not function under directive of BJP, then we will be forced to describe them (central team members) as migratory birds. If they work to be on the side of the poor villagers, we have nothing to comment on.”

A three-member team was visiting different blocks of Kaliachak in Malda district and interacting with villagers at their homes to hear complaints from locals who had not been allotted houses under the PMAY scheme despite applying.

Since January 5, another team has been visiting villages in the Purba Medinipur district.

Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, announced on Saturday that another central team will tour 15 districts of the state next week.

“They (central team) will visit every block, they will go from house to house. They will scrutinise the audits and expenses and identify the wrongdoers,” Adhikari told a public rally at Chandipur in Purba Medinipur district.

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