Bhubaneswar: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik's Ama Gaon, Ama Bikash Yojana (our village, our development scheme) has been planned with an eye on polls and to accommodate development project that does not fit into any existing schemes of the government.

Under the new programme, Naveen will reach out to all the performing panchayats through video-conference every week, interact with the elected panchayat representatives and accord sanction to their project proposals immediately. The project cost will range between Rs 1 and Rs 10 lakh.

On Monday, Naveen spoke to the sarpanchs of Sasan gram panchayat in Sambalpur, Sanakuda gram panchayat in Ganjam district, Narayanpatna panchayat in Maoist-affected Koraput district and Khairabad panchayat of Jajpur district.

"Your chief minister is in your area. He will meet the people every week to enquire about their problems. You give good proposals for the development of your villages and these will be sanctioned immediately," he told the sarpanchs while speaking to them.The direct interaction programme with the villagers will be held at the state secretariat twice every week. The programme has been launched with the general elections in mind. Earlier, the programme was started at the party level a few months ago.

Leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra said: "There are scores of villages that do not have safe drinking water. Naveen Patnaik government is announcing schemes after schemes keeping the elections in mind."

BJP legislature party leader K.V. Singh Deo said: "The state government has not handed over many constitutional powers to the panchayati raj bodies. It has failed to provide drinking water and employment to the villagers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme."

However, BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb refuted the allegations. "The new move has been taken in public interest and is in public view. "