Pingla, Jan. 12: A below-poverty-line family has fled home in West Midnapore’s Pingla, scared after being threatened by CPM leaders for a declaration that they had received Rs 25,000 under a housing scheme for the poorest of the poor.

Bankim Koch, 40, said he had not received any money under the Indira Awas Yojana, though he had applied for it in 2007 and had been living in a shelter since his mud-walled, thatched hut got destroyed during the 2006 monsoon.

The day labourer was stunned when other villagers told him that his name figured in the 2007-08 annual report of the CPM-led Jamna gram panchayat, which had listed the beneficiaries of the scheme.

“I couldn’t believe it. The panchayat had named 191 beneficiaries, including me. Sukumar Patra, a CPM branch committee member and former panchayat deputy chief, told me the body had run out of funds last year and I will get the money in 2009,” said the resident of Madhabchak village, 140km from Calcutta.

Bankim met Pingla block development officer Mukul Chandra Mahato on Saturday. “Since that night, Patra and other local leaders have been pressuring me to give them in writing that I have received the money. They have prevented me from working in the Jamna bazaar area as a labourer and told me they would not let me live in the village,”he said.

Bankim left his brother-in-law’s house, where he had been staying since 2006, on Sunday night with wife Sumitra, 35, son Biswajit, 15, and daughter Alpana, 12. He is now with an acquaintance in the bazaar, a kilometre away. “It has become difficult for me to step out. CPM members are hounding me,” he said.

Bankim met the BDO again this morning with his wife and children. BDO Mahato said: “I have promised him protection. I have also told him that we will ensure that he is allowed to work as a labourer in his locality. We have started an inquiry.”

Patra was not available for comment.