Bhubaneswar: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik's pet programme Ama Gaon, Ama Bikash (our village, our development) Yojana has drawn flak from the Opposition for blatantly pushing the BJD agenda while bypassing the elected representatives.

Under the programme, Naveen interacts with villagers and elected panchayati raj representatives through videoconferencing from the secretariat. He sanctions projects "on the spot" on the suggestions made by villagers and panchayat representatives.

The government has already released Rs 729.14 crore for 29,816 projects across the state. For the programme launched on March 5 this year, it has provided Rs 1,279 core, roughly Rs 8 crore per Assembly constituency, in this year's budget. Incidentally, an MLA is entitled to sanction projects worth Rs 1 crore per year for his constituency. It is natural for the MLAs to be peeved at the Ama Gaon Ama Bikash programme because they are not taken into confidence.

While BJD MLAs manage to be part of the programme by virtue of being the members of the ruling party, the Opposition Congress and BJP MLAs feel Naveen was directly consolidating his party position in their constituencies by completely ignoring them.

"The selection of the projects is pre-arranged, sponsored by the local BJD leaders keeping the party's interest in mind. The so-called on-the spot sanction of the project by the chief minister is just an eye-wash," said the Congress's Aul MLA Debendra Sharma.

"We don't have any role to play in the programme. We are not even invited to the chief minister's video conferences," said Sharma's party colleague from Laxmipur constituency in Koraput district, Kailash Chandra Kulasika.

BJP's Kuchinda MLA Rabi Narayan Naik said a unanimous resolution was passed by Jamankira Panchayat Samiti in his area that the elected body had not been informed about the Ama Gaon, Ama Bikash programme.

Naik said though crores were being spent on this government-sponsored programme, the Opposition sarpanchs and ward members were not being invited to the programme.

He said since his constituency was a part of scheduled area, each and every decision needed to be passed by gram sabha, which was not being done in the case of the Ama Gaon, Ama Bikash programme.