PMAY protest: Bengal BJP activists block road in Hooghly

Around 100 BJP activists gathered on the national highway at Dadpur in Hooghly district blocking traffic and demanding the removal of a BDO for alleged irregularities in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

Kolkata:BJP activists blocked a road in West Bengal's Hooghly district on Sunday demanding the removal of a BDO for alleged irregularities in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana even as two Central teams visited some places in the state to look into allegations of malpractices in the allotment of houses under PMAY. Shouting slogans 'Chor chor TMC chor', 'BDO Dur Hato' (BDO go away), around 100 BJP activists gathered on the national highway at Dadpur in Hooghly district blocking traffic.

A district official said they left the spot after half an hour at the intervention of police and no untoward incident took place. A district BJP leader alleged the names of owners of two-storied, and three-storied buildings in Dadpur, Polba areas have figured in the list prepared by the district administration for deserving ones under PMAY while the needy ones, living in thatched houses have been left out at the insistence of local TMC leaders.

TMC state spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said while there will be zero tolerance policy towards those involved in irregularities in Awas Yojana scheme as emphasised by party National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, BJP is trying to incite people in the name of protests and foment trouble ahead of the panchayat polls.

Reacting to the visits of central teams to Purba Medinipur and Malda districts for past couple of days, Ghosh said "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 by a section of locals that they hadn't been allotted houses under the PMAY scheme despite applications. Another team went around villages in Purba Medinipur district since January 5. Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday said 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. (PTI)