Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has reiterated that the State Government is committed to its pre-poll promise of constructing double-bedroom houses to the poor and it has a strategy to approach the goal firmly.
“We are conscious of the promise made in our manifesto and before the GHMC elections and we are also aware of the repercussions if we go to next polls without completing houses,” the Chief Minister said during the short discussion on “Weaker Section Housing including Rajiv Swagruha, Rajiv Gruhakalpa and Double-Bedroom Houses” in the Assembly on Tuesday.
After the Chief Minister’s statement outlining the government’s plans towards double-bedroom houses and the status of various housing schemes, several members participated in the debate highlighting the shortcomings and the snail's pace of the scheme's progress so far.
Initiating the debate, D.K. Aruna of Congress alleged that the government had instituted CID probe into the housing irregularities as if only to deny payment of bills to beneficiaries. She also demanded that the government make public the probe report.
Bringing the inordinate delay in allotment of houses already constructed under various schemes in different parts of the city, K. Laxman of BJP said many of such houses were either damaged due to lack of maintenance (being empty) or illegally occupied by non-beneficiaries. He also suggested the government make the provision for cost escalation in tenders for double-bedroom houses so that contractors' disinterest was overcome.
Akbaruddin Owaisi of MIM pointed out that injustice was done to minorities, particularly Muslims, in the housing schemes all through and it could be undone only by giving 12 per cent quota to them in double-bedroom houses. He mentioned that only 35,166 houses were allotted to minorities during 1983-2014 out of 43.29 lakh houses sanctioned.
Komatireddy creates flutter
Congress members Komatireddy Venkat Reddy created a flutter when he stated that Congress would not contest the next elections if the government completed even two lakh double-bedroom houses before the next elections although the government had plans to complete 2.6 lakh houses by next year. The Chief Minister, explaining the government plans for the double-bedroom houses, stated that Rs.17,600 crore funds were already tied-up and the Centre was ready to sanction as many houses as required under the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Awas Yojana, under which it would give Rs.1.5 lakh per unit in urban areas and Rs.1.3 lakh in rural areas. Reducing the EMD for tenders was also being examined, he stated. On Indiramma houses, Mr. Rao said field-level verification had identified 2.46 lakh houses sanctioned to be genuine so far and Rs.336 crore bills were paid to over 56,000 beneficiaries already and another Rs.556 crore was ready out of Rs.1,100 crore required for remaining houses.
