The Orissa High Court has ordered District Magistrate, Balasore, to respond to a plea alleging non-involvement of grama sabhas in the ‘Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha’ (AONO) scheme. Under the scheme, ₹50 lakh each is proposed to be given to panchayats to take up rural infrastructure projects and promote, preserve and protect “Jagannath Culture”.
The Odisha Congress took the opportunity to criticise the Naveen Patnaik government for ignoring the role of panchayats in AONO - the State government’s major pre-election scheme.
Hearing the petition of Nagendra Kumar Singha who raised question over implementation of AONO, Justice Biswanath Rath observed the petition involved a serious allegation on the working out of schemes without involvement of panchayat and even the grama sabha, ultimately frustrating the purpose behind creation of three-tier governance.
