Diju Jhankar, a member of Chakotia Bhunjia, a particularly vulnerable tribal group, waited for months to receive the second instalment for construction of his house under Indira Awas Yojana granted to him in Sunabeda, a dense forested region in Odisha’s Nuapada district.
But when he withdrew the amount and was about to resume construction, he was hit by the Centre’s sudden demonetisation move.
“There was no problem in depositing the amount and withdrawing the same in future. But, we will forego day’s labour for depositing the amount in a bank, 30 kms away from my village,” said Diju.
Diju is not the lone beneficiary of IAY houses sanctioned under the Sunabeda Area Development Programme (SDP). Several tribals in remote Sunabeda and Soseng gram panchayats in Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary would be inconvenienced.
Sunabeda plateau is one of the acutely LWE-affected areas in the State.
During past few months, most IAY beneficiaries from Sunabeda area had gone to banks several times to check if funds had been transferred to their account.
According to reports reaching from different districts, villagers in remote and inaccessible region were clueless about coping with the situation.
Meanwhile, in another development the Odisha government announced that line departments were prepared to disburse old age pension in 6,000 gram panchayats on November 15. Pensions will be paid in hand as most panchayats were devoid of banking facilities. As per the State government, Rs 140 crore will be distributed among 35 lakh beneficiaries under different social security schemes.
