After months of criticising it, Odisha’s BJP govt launches BJD-like rural development scheme

“Under the scheme, accent would beryllium fixed for accelerating improvement of tribal and inaccessible pockets. The authorities volition walk Rs 5,000 crore successful 5 years nether the scheme. Projects sanctioned by gram sabhas volition lone beryllium taken into information to instrumentality up nether the caller scheme,” said Majhi.

The strategy appears to carnivore immoderate resemblance to the 1 launched by Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal authorities successful 2023. Called ‘Ama Odisha, Nabin Odisha (our Odisha, caller Odisha)’, the strategy was a saltation of the ‘Ama Gaon, Ama Vikash (our village, our development)’ and promised fiscal assistance of Rs 50 lakh to panchayats for protecting places of worships, upgrading sites of humanities significance, and improving agrarian infrastructure and integer access.

Significantly, the ‘Ama Odisha, Nabin Odisha’ rolled retired by Patnaik up of past year’s assembly polls, built connected the occurrence of the ‘Ama Gaon, Ama Vikash’. The past authorities had hoped it would assistance it tide implicit the increasing anti-incumbency successful the authorities up of 2024 assembly polls, though it was unsuccessful.

According to authorities officials, the ‘Viksit Gaon, Viksit Odisha’ strategy volition beryllium “catalyst to fulfil the needs of the radical successful agrarian areas”. The strategy besides has provisions for the improvement of smaller and lesser-known places with tourism potential, and upgrading acquisition and sports infrastructure among different nationalist payment projects.

“The thought to assistance projects approved by the gram sabha is to guarantee that the task is based connected the needs of the villagers. If we volition authorisation a task based connected the needs of the villagers, we volition beryllium capable to code the discontent with respect to the government,” said a elder official.

When the strategy was archetypal launched, Majhi, past successful the Opposition, had claimed that the Patnaik authorities was utilizing the ‘Ama Odisha, Nabin Odisha’ strategy to make a ballot bank.

By launching the Ama Gaon, Ama Vikash’ strategy earlier the 2019 assembly polls, the BJD hoped to bushed anti-incumbency and antagonistic the BJP, whose melodramatic emergence successful the panchayat elections 2 years earlier had threatened its astir 2 decades of regularisation successful the state.

Under the scheme, past CM Patnaik straight engaged with panchayat representatives done video-conferencing and assistance projects for astir each colony based connected their suggestions. The scheme, among others, played a relation successful helping the BJD clasp powerfulness contempt its losses to the BJP successful the 2017 panchayat polls.

However, the BJD was not capable to replicate its occurrence successful past year’s elections, losing powerfulness for the archetypal clip successful 24 years.

A BJD person admitted that the ‘Ama Odisha, Nabin Odisha’ “wasn’t implemented similar its 2019 predecessor.

“However, the nonsubjective of the strategy was not bad, which has besides been proved aft the BJP decided to proceed with a caller name,” helium said.