Kendrapara, Sept. 5: Cracking whip on the misuse of housing doles, authorities have lodged FIRs against 230 beneficiaries who allegedly misappropriated government grants.

The beneficiaries had been sanctioned grants under the government-sponsored Indira Awash Yojana (IAY), Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana (BPGY) and Moo Kudia Yojana. However, the accused misused the money instead of constructing pucca houses.

The beneficiaries who were sanctioned funds for converting their kuccha dwelling units into pucca houses face charges of gobbling up government funds. All of them hail from Rajnagar tehsil of Kendrapara district.

While IAY happens to be a central scheme, BPGY was an election promise of the BJD with the party assuring the voters during the 2014 campaign that all kuccha houses would be converted into pucca ones within five years.

Allocation of the first instalment of BPGY grants worth Rs 20,000 was released in favour of beneficiaries during 2013-14. However, they did not build the houses in spite of giving a written undertaking.

"The administration was forced to take recourse to law for grants' recovery as such acts amounted to misappropriation of government money," said Kendrapara collector Debraj Senapati.

The BPGY beneficiaries were selected through a lottery. People with kuccha who did not get benefits under any other scheme were selected for BPGY. Their annual income did not exceed Rs 18,000 and were selected by a committee headed by the district collectors. MPs and MLAs from the district were empanelled as members of the committee, said an official.

The beneficiaries are being sanctioned Rs 70,000 under the BPGY scheme. The funds are released in phased manner after verification of progress of construction work, said the official.

"Around 230 beneficiaries were found responsible for embezzling the funds. During inquiry, house construction work could not be spotted. As misuse of government grant is a criminal offence, FIRs have been lodged against those who misused the grants," said Jhadeswar Das, the block development officer of Rajnagar.

"If the guilty beneficiaries fail to pay back the allocated grants, cases would also be registered for the recovery of government grants under the Odisha Public Demand Recovery Act," Das said.

"The administration had launched a massive awareness drive to sensitise the villagers to immediately stop the misuse of government grants. Through public announcement systems, the beneficiaries who misused the money had earlier been told to refund the grants or to begin construction at the earliest. However, the appeal failed to pay any dividends and there is nothing we can do," said Das.

"The recovered grants would be sanctioned in favour of earmarked beneficiaries who are yet to be covered by the scheme," Das said.