By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, December 11, 2021: Odisha Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sanction 1.84 lakh houses for families hit by Cyclone Fani under Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (Gramin) and 13 lakh houses for others in tribal dominated districts and backward KBK region.

Patnaik in a letter thanked the prime minister for sanctioning 8.17 Lakh PMAY(G) houses to Odisha while drawing his attention to the woes of many families of KBK (Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput) region and tribal dominated districts of the state and many families who have lost their houses in cyclone Fani in 2019.

He said the rural development ministry had allowed identification of eligible left out families through ‘Awaas Plus’ by March 7, 2019. But the state could identify only 35000 families within this stipulated period because of pre-occupation of government machinery in preparatory work for the 2019 general election, network connectivity and LWE violence in some pockets of State.

When the ministry opened Awaas+ window for only the 14 districts affected by Cyclone Fani, another 7.87 Lakh families were identified. The state government conducted the identification through the rural housing (RH) portal and found another 5.09 lakh families in 16 districts not affected by cyclone Fani, but eligible.

The districts unaffected by Cyclone Fani were predominantly tribal ones and in the KBK region of the state, Patnaik said adding that these families should be covered by migrating their data from state portal to PMAY(G).

He reminded the prime minister of his commitment in May 2019 to allot five Lakh PMAY-G (Special) houses to families affected by the cyclone and said there are 1.84 Lakh families whose houses were damaged by it. These families are not otherwise entitled for availing normal PMAY(G) houses.

“So, these families may be considered for PMAY-G (Special) houses waiving the pre-condition of their names to be in PWL (permanent wait list) of PMAY (G),”a release from the CMO said quoting the letter.

Patnaik said there may be more eligible families who were missed out during survey through the Awaas+ and RH (rural housing) portal and sought the prime minister’s intervention to allow opening of Awaas+ window for the entire state for a period of one month.

The chief minister voiced concern over the rejection of the state’s request in this regard by the ministry of rural development on July 5, 2021 and hoped that the PM’s intervention would be of help.