Allottees to the promised double bedroom houses who are yet to receive the keys to their finished dwellings staged a demonstration at the GHMC head office on Friday, protesting the delay in completion of the project.
Over 200 beneficiaries from Bojagutta, one of the sites where the double bedroom project is on, converged at the office holding placards and shouted slogans against the corporation.
Many are miffed with the delay as they are staying in rented homes, and without proper facilities. “During the last one year, I have spent a lot of money for shifting of home and business. Rented houses are not available for less than ₹4,000 per month, and I have also lost business owing to change in address,” said Ch. Praveen, a scrap merchant.
A. Gouri, an allottee who is a tailor, said her family was shown an alternative location to build a hut till the houses are ready. “There is neither drainage nor water facility there. Lack of street lights is one more issue, and snakes are entering homes,” she complained, adding: “Though we willingly vacated our dwellings in the slum, officials have not yet allotted the promised homes. Those who have not surrendered their homes happily continue to live there.”
The slum dwellers also demanded that the reluctant residents be forcibly evicted.
GHMC had taken up in-situ slum development on 13 acres at Bojagutta near Gudimalkapur, and planned to construct 1,824 double bedroom houses to be given to the slum residents free of cost. Officials had to make extra efforts to convince the slum dwellers to give up their existing shacks so that the project could be taken up. Mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan had personally visited the slum, and convinced the residents to surrender their plots.
Quite a few residents who occupied larger plots refused to vacate, as the homes on offer were part of apartment complexes, and did not match the value of the land they were in possession of. “We could take up construction of only 500-plus houses due to reluctance of people. Some houses not vacated fall right in the middle of the project, and that is creating problem for vehicle movement,” said GHMC Chief Engineer (Housing), K. Suresh Kumar.
The homes under construction could be completed in the coming six months, he said. Sources, however, vouch that this is mere conjecture. The project has come to a standstill owing to pending payments to contractors. The State government is yet to release about ₹350 crore for which bills have been submitted, they say.
Of the one lakh 2BHK units proposed to be constructed in and around the city, only 572 have been delivered to beneficiaries so far.
