Govt. nod for House panel on housing societies, Wakf lands

Irregularities in allotment of house sites by housing societies and encroachment of Wakf lands to be probed

The Government of Telangana has agreed to a House Committee to go into allotment of land to cooperative housing societies, irregularities in allotment of house sites by them and encroachment of Wakf lands in the State following a demand by MIM and TRS members.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced in the Assembly on Thursday the government’s willingness to constitute the House Committee after the issue was raised by MIM and TRS members. The committee would broadly enquire into the irregularities in allotment of house sites by cooperative housing societies to which the land was allotted by the government and large-scale encroachment of Wakf lands.

Terms of reference later

However, the terms of reference and the composition of the committee will be announced by the Speaker in consultation with the floor leaders of all parties. The Chief Minister has suggested inclusion of MLCs in the committee. He admitted that large chunks of Wakf land was occupied and looted and irregularities in housing societies were being committed regularly.

Raising the issue earlier, floor leader of MIM Akbaruddin Owaisi said the land allotted to Jubilee Hills, Film Nagar, Nandagiri, Venkateshwara and Journalist housing societies and to Deccan Hospital and micro wave station belonged to Dargah Hazrath Hakeem Shah Baba and there were records in support of it dating back to 125 years. He alleged large-scale irregularities and violations in the allotment of house sites in all these societies.

‘Scrap societies’

Mr. Owaisi noted that several enquiries conducted by the government in the past had confirmed irregularities. The scams in all housing societies, including that of TNGOs, was worth over Rs. 500 crore, he said and wanted the government to direct the GHMC stop giving building permissions in case of open sites till the inquiry was over and also to scrap all societies till that time.

B. Sanjeeva Rao and G. Balaraju of TRS also cited several irregularities in the allotment of sites by societies, while Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka of the Congress sought a probe into the TNGOs housing society.