BALURGHAT: Local people staged a demonstration and blocked Balurghat-Malda State Highway via Tapan on Monday allegedly for not getting houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
The incident took place in Hardighi area, which is under Tapan police station. Normalcy was, however, restored after two hours and the roadblock was lifted only after receiving the assurance from the administrative officials.
According to an official source, there are 11 Gram Panchayats under Tapan block, which have around 2.70 lakh voters. “Around 40,000 applications for getting the house under the scheme were received by the officials. As many as 200 government officials were involved for the scrutiny and the verification. Thousands of applications were cancelled after the verification,” said the source.
On Monday, a group of irate locals started a demonstration and blocked the SH demanding immediate publication of a fresh list after a proper verification.
After hearing the about incident, the Joint BDO of Tapan block and the Inspector-in-Charge of Tapan police station reached the spot to pacify the protestors. After their intervention, the demonstration and the roadblock were lifted.One of the demonstrators, Debul Roy said: “The names of many eligible beneficiaries of Tapan block were eliminated. We demanded immediate rectification of the list.”