In a first of its kind programme in the State, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday gave away house-site pattas (title deeds) of below 100 square yards to 30,562 families free of cost on Thursday.
At a huge gathering, mostly of women, he gave away pattas to a few and a number of stalls were set up, ward and constituency-wise, to hand over the title deeds to others. “It’s a dream come true for me as those living in the site for decades now got legally valid papers,” Mr. Naidu said.
The value of the land distributed to the women was estimated upwards of Rs.4,000 crore.
Pat for Collector, administration
A Cabinet sub-committee was formed and instructions given to district Collectors to carry out the programme. Visakhapatnam Collector Pravin Kumar and the administration did it efficiently, he said.
The Visakhapatnam district not only did it first but followed it up in a scientific manner by carrying out differential global positioning system (DGPS) survey, Google map and survey map and geo-tagging and the picture of the beneficiary, Mr. Naidu said, lauding the effort of the administration as wonderful. Asserting that providing housing was his priority, he said a new G.O. was brought out fixing rates for sites above 100 square yards. The order would take up regularisation from 100 to 1,000 square yards at rates ranging from Rs.25 a square yard to Rs.500.
Mr. Naidu assured the gathering that the Simhachalam land issue would be resolved soon. Pattas on Gajuwaka House Committee sites would also be given soon. The pattas were given away to women along with vermillion, turmeric and a blouse piece. The women were provided lunch and brought in buses to the venue. Mr. Naidu also gave away Rs.148 crore as second instalment of DWCRA loan waiver at the rate of Rs.3,000 to members of SHGs in district and city.
Detailing the government’s housing plans, the Chief Minister said five lakh houses would be constructed with a subsidy of Rs.1.5 lakh for individual houses and Rs.3 lakh for G+2 and G+3 construction.
Government land would be given to developers and rate negotiated.
Lauding the people of Visakhapatnam as disciplined, he sought their fullest and unilateral cooperation in all his endeavours to improve the lives of people.
Panchayat Raj Minister Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu, Member of Parliament Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao, MLC M.V.V.S. Murthi and MLAs Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, V. Ramakrishnababu and P. Vishnu Kumar Raju termed the distribution of nearly 31,000 pattas as historic and heaped praise on the Chief Minister. The crowd responded with huge applause to the speeches.
