Chief Secretary Dinesh Kumar on Thursday asked the officials to take steps to complete construction of 40,000 houses taken up under the NTR rural housing scheme. At a review meeting, the Chief Secretary said the target of constructing 2 lakh houses in 2016-17 had to be achieved before the end of December. Another 1.71 lakh houses must be constructed in 2017-18, and all the houses had to be ready for housewarming by 2018-19. Geo tagging of all houses that were completed was also necessary, he said.
Mr. Dinesh Kumar said the bills must be paid in seven stages to the beneficiaries. The government took up the convergence of housing and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). The labour component of housing scheme could be met from funds from the labour component of the MNREGS. The Central government was releasing funds, he said, adding the payments had to be made within 15 days to the beneficiaries.
The Chief Secretary said 9,170 houses sanctioned in Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, and Srikakulam districts under the NTR Special Housing (Hudhud cyclone) at ₹252 crore must be completed by month end.
AP State Housing Corporation MD Kantilal Dande said so far 6,096 houses had been completed. Another 1845 houses were in progress.
