New Delhi: With less than a year left for both Odisha state assembly and Lok Sabha elections, state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has modified and relaunched his flagship scheme — ‘Ama Gaon, Ama Bikash’ (our village, our development) — as ‘Ama Odisha, Nabin Odisha’ (our Odisha, new Odisha).
The Rs. 4,000 crore scheme, which aims to utilise panchayat-level funds for protection of places of worship, development of rural infrastructure and preservation of local heritage, is being seen as a poll gimmick by the Opposition, as even the previous avatar of the scheme was launched in 2018, months before the 2019 assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
‘Ama Gaon, Ama Bikash’ was reportedly one of the poll planks the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) used during the 2019 assembly election campaign, to sail through 19 years of anti-incumbency. The government is said to have allocated Rs 1,250 crore to the scheme in 2018-19.
The new version has an additional focus on places of worship.
“Creation of amenities for the purpose of promotion, preservation and protection of Jagannath [a Hindu deity widely worshipped in Odisha] culture, places of worship and pilgrim amenities in places of high congregation,” is one of the “basic objectives” of the scheme, according to guidelines issued by the Department of Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water. ThePrint has seen the guidelines.
Patnaik has undertaken renovation of a number of temples in the state, including the famous Jagannath Temple in Puri since 2019 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the ruling BJD’s principal challenger in the state, in the 2019 Lok Sabha and assembly elections.
Although the BJD confined the BJP to 23 seats in the 147-member assembly, the latter managed to win eight of 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The BJD won 112 seats in the assembly to retain power in Odisha and 12 in Lok Sabha that year.
Under the new scheme, the funds will be spent on improvement of primary education infrastructure, digital & internet access, sports facilities, banking facilities and additional facilities for “Mission Shakti groups” at gram panchayat level. Mission Shakti is a state sponsored programme for empowerment of women in Odisha through Self Help Group approach.
This is a step ahead of the older scheme which had been launched with the objective “to accelerate local development by taking small and essential projects of local importance and providing missing links to existing development infrastructure as well as construction, repair, modernization of expansion works”. ThePrint has also seen the older guidelines.
Under the new plan, each gram panchayat will be entitled to a sum of up to Rs 50 lakh for developmental projects, each worth not more than Rs 10 lakh. Of the 50 lakh, up to Rs 10 lakh will be spent for the “promotion, preservation and protection” of Jagannath culture and tradition, places of worship and pilgrim amenities in places with high congregation, state the guidelines.
As in the previous scheme, the recommendations for the projects would come from local people, community organisations, public representatives and other stakeholders. For government approval, project lists of each block would be consolidated and submitted to the government’s Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water department. Collectors of all districts have been asked to submit the proposal by 31 July this year, ThePrint has learnt.
Talking about the scheme to ThePrint, state Panchayati Raj Minister Pradip Kumar Amat said, “This scheme… will herald a new Odisha. It will usher in an Odisha with secure roots and powerful wings”.
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‘New Odisha’ or ‘hoodwink’
While BJD leaders have applauded the scheme as the “vision of a New Odisha”, the Opposition has attacked the ruling party for the relaunch.
Shortly after the state cabinet approved the scheme last week, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told the media in Bhubaneswar, “I am glad to brief you all about our ‘Ama Odisha, Nabin Odisha’. This scheme has the vision of a new Odisha, aspirational Odisha, modern Odisha, while retaining the essence, the soul and the spirit of Odisha.”
While saying that the scheme will help panchayats to take up developmental work, he added, “We need to bridge the gap in education infrastructure, provide banking facilities, build digital infrastructure and take up other modernization works.”
However, the Opposition has been sharp in its attack on the government. In a press conference a day later, state Congress president Sarat Pattanayak pointed at the older version of the scheme and said, “The BJD government often announces schemes before elections and forgets them after voting is completed”. The opposition party also alleged that the provision of Rs 50 lakh per gram panchayat will go to the BJD.
In a separate conference, senior BJP leader Samir Mohanty taunted the chief minister for the name of the scheme sounding like his own name and said that the programme indicated that the ruling BJD was veering towards “Naveen’s Odisha” from “Biju’s Odisha”.
He added, “This is a new game of the government to hoodwink people.”
“We suspect the new scheme is a ploy to make funds available for BJD workers for the upcoming elections as projects are being awarded (under the old scheme) without floating tenders,” Mohanty further alleged.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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