An under-construction building in Ishopur. Telegraph picture

Patna, June 6: Residents of slums in Patna and Bodhgaya were supposed to be rehabilitated and moved to new homes by late this year.

However, they may have to continue in their urban hovels, considering the speed at which the basic services for urban poor scheme (BSUP) are being implemented in the state.

Sources said three years after the BSUP scheme — a sub-scheme of Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission — began in Bihar, work has started at only four of the 67 selected sites.

The implementing agency of the scheme, Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (Hudco), is so frustrated with the non-cooperation of the state government that they are planning to hand over the project to the government next month.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between Hudco and the state government on January 1, 2008, according to which the agency was supposed to finish the project in a year-and-a-half.

Sources claimed the state government has received Rs 80 crore from the Centre for the development of 22,372 dwelling units at 60 sites in Patna and seven sites in Bodhgaya. However, only Rs 14.83 crore has been spent till now at the four sites in Patna and no work has started in Bodhgaya.

While Hudco officials blame the state government for not acquiring the land required for constructing the dwelling units, the government has retorted by claiming that the agency has been unable to complete the project in time.

“In Patna, of the 60 chosen sites, slums exist at 40. Land acquisition has, however, been done only at 12 sites. Litigations are pending for the rest,” a Hudco official told The Telegraph.

The official also said: “The work was started at four sites — Ishopur, Sarifaganj, Saidpur and Mangal Talab — using funds of Rs 21.51 crore released by the state government. The cost of each dwelling unit is around Rs 2.42 lakh. While the first three projects would be over by August this year, the fourth would be completed in December.

“The board of the agency has decided that the project — impeded by various constraints — would be returned to the state government if the land at the remaining sites are not acquired by the end of this month,” added the official.

While Hudco and the state government exchange accusations over the delay in the process, the beneficiaries, who have been waiting eagerly for the new dwellings, are also disappointed by the protracted period of rehabilitation.

“A team of government officials came last year and took copies of our identity cards with our photographs and other details. We were assured that we would be provided flats or at least rooms in the dwelling units. All of us co-operated with the officials but later a local leader claimed that the land belongs to him and filed a court case. Nothing has happened thereafter,” said Sharada Devi, a resident at the Dujara slum near Buddha Colony police station.

State urban development minister Prem Kumar, who has accused Hudco in the past of not completing the work on time, was unavailable for comment today.

The cellphone of Shashi Shekhar Sharma, principal secretary, urban development department, was also switched off.