The district committee of the Communist Party of India (CPI) has urged the district administration and the state government to cancel the whole list of beneficiaries of Ashraya housing Scheme and demanded a fresh survey of houseless persons and identification of beneficiaries by conducting Gram Sabhas for the year 2006-07.

Speaking to the media persons on  Friday, CPI district committee secretary Shoukat Ali Alur and state committee member Shankar Kattesangavi alleged large scale irregularities in the selection of beneficiaries, particularly in Jewargi taluk with the connivance of ruling Congress and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

According to Alur, the beneficiaries have been selected at the whims and fancies of Congress, BJP leaders and workers. “Ninety per cent of the beneficiaries of Ashraya houses are either fake or ineligible. The two parties have joined together in the irregularities’’ Alur charged.

The CPI leaders said the selection of beneficiaries for Ashraya houses was by and large irregular in the whole district thanks to the “perfect understanding” among the two coalition partners JD (S) and BJP and the opposition Congress.

They accused the Zilla Panchayat chief executive officer P C Jaffar of turning a blind eye to the political high handedness in the selection of beneficiaries. Though, the matter has been brought to the notice of the CEO on several occasions, no corrective measures have been taken yet, they criticised.

Alur and Kattesanagavi alleged that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was more or less a flop in the district with the large scale use of machinery in the works against the prescribed norms and guidelines. At several places, particularly in Aland taluk, machines were freely deployed denying work to the needy, they claimed.

Dharna
The party has decided to launch a dharna  on June 5 in front of the Zilla Panchayat office demanding cancellation of whole list of beneficiaries of Ashraya houses for the year 2006-07 and selection of beneficiaries afresh.

Kattesangavi came down heavily on BJP and Congress leaders of Jewargi for filing a false case on the peacefully demonstrating CPI leaders recently.

He said the party wanted a detailed information on the selection of beneficiaries of Ashraya houses and about the job guarantee scheme but the Taluk Panchayat executive officer could not furnish the same. Instead of giving the information Taluk Panchayat leaders have booked cases against CPI workers, he alleged.

Relay hunger strike
The party has decided to launch a relay hunger strike  in front of the Tahsildar’s office at Jewargi on June 4.

The demands of the party include —issue of ration cards to all poor, setting right the loopholes in the implementation of employment guarantee scheme, selection of Ashraya house beneficiaries at Gram Sabha and supply of seeds and fertilizers to small and marginal farmers at 75% subsidy.