Jarina Bibi, Mairag Begum, Amiran Bibi, Ibrahim Ali, Fatima Bibi, Isad Ali, Amir Ali, Gulban Bibi and Halima Bibi, all residents of a village Haligaon, were quite oblivious to the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited them on Saturday to see if Central government’s flagship scheme, the Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MsDP) has really reached them.
“We did not know for what Prime Minister came but we had a complaint to convey which we could not do. We have not gotten the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) houses even after paying bribes ranging from `2000 to `10,000 to the “dalals” (middlemen) mostly the local Congress leaders,” said the poor residents of the village to this newspaper soon after Prime Minister left for Jorhat after completing his inspection of a MsDP project of Kamrup district, launched officially in 2008.
Fatima Bibi, a widow who paid `2,000 to a middleman sometime ago, asserted that she was ready to testify the allegation in front of anybody that she is yet to get an IAY house even after paying the bribe.
Her neighbour said, “When her dilapidated house was brought down by a strong wind, we somehow managed to build a house for her.”
If opinion of these villagers, mostly comprising of daily wage earners and rickshaw pullers was any indicator, Prime Minister could not get to know the reality. Amidst tight security, he was taken to six IAY houses, which were constructed hurriedly with electricity and toilet facilities, after the Prime Minister expressed his willingness to visit Haligaon a minority dominated village included under the MsDP scheme in Kamrup district of Assam.
The entire government machinery came into action and renovated the area, the day before Prime Minister visited the village on Saturday.
In what the villagers told reporters was also corroborated in the report of the ministry for minority affairs.