Janaki Nagar IAY houses turn a save haven for miscreants

By Prashant Rath/ www.indusvalleytimes.com

Nowrangpur: The Indira Awas Colony located at Janaki Naga, nearly one km away from the office of the district collector here, has turned out to a den of anti-socials.

Built in 1997-98 by Congress stalwart and former minister Janab Habibula Khan for tribals, the colony surprisingly has no beneficiary living in it because of poor quality of houses.

According to Union government sources, the government had sanctioned for construction of 400 houses. A grant of Rs 22,000 was given for construction of each house. But the then Congress government in the state changed the plan and decided to construct a colony and that too in the urban area within a short distance of the district collector’s office.

All norms were allegedly violated in the process. The then chief minister J.B Patnaik inaugurated the colony where Rs 88 lakh was spent. As the houses were not constructed by the entitled poor beneficiaries themselves, the work executors did not ensure quality. Most of the houses are in dilapidated condition today.

Nowrangpur MLA Mr Monohar Randhari, and Municipality chairman Mr Prahald Tripathy, have demanded a high level probe into the irregularities in the implementation of the IAY scheme.