Congress demands white paper on double bed room scheme

Hyderabad, May 26: The Congress party has demanded that the TRS government release a White Paper on the Double Bed Room Housing Scheme for the people of Telangana on the occasion of observance of the second Telangana Formation Day on June 2. Speaking to the media here on Thursday at Gandhi Bhavan, senior party leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy said since the TRS party, before the State formation and the TRS government after the formation, raised expectations of the people with a promise of providing Double Bed Room houses to all the eligible families in the State. Yet, even two years after the formation of Telangana State and TRS being in power, they have not come out with a policy, with clarity about all factors which are important for the scheme to be successfully implemented in a time-bound manner, he pointed out. Foundations were laid for over 60,000 houses in all the constituencies in the State on Dasara day in 2015 and there was spree of foundation laying last year in the run up to the recent elections to GHMC and other corporations, he said and alleged that those 60,000 houses were to be completed in six months’ time. What is the status today?, he questioned the TRS government. After the GHMC results were declared, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao promised one lakh houses in GHMC besides one lakh houses in the rest of the State within one year. Almost four months elapsed, what is the status?, he questioned and said this being so, one wonders what the developments have been since last February (2015) when IT Minister KT Rama Rao said in the next four years their priority would be double bed room houses in the State. In February 2016, Minister KT Rama Rao had claimed that TATA Housing was interested in the construction of the 2 BHK Scheme, he said and he asked about the status? He questioned the government to tell the total number of houses to be constructed in GHMC limits and the rest of the State and about the funding for the scheme. In the much-hyped Double bed room scheme in IDH colony, they constructed G+2 floors, he said. He questioned as to what are they planning to do now? G+2 or G+6 or G+11? What will be the cost per unit under these schemes? What will be the extent to which houses will be constructed in-situ and land freshly acquired?, he asked and said that the GO Ms No 53 was issued by the Health and Family Welfare Department on July 20, 2015 to transfer 7 acres of prime land facing the Mumbai national highway in Ameerpet, belonging to the State Health Transport Organization (SHTO) to the GHMC for the construction of 2-bed room houses, as it was found suitable. “My allegation is that the state government is slowly trying to push this scheme into a PPP mode” he said and demanded the government to clarify it. The GHMC Commissioner had stated that the scheme would be taken up on a PPP mode with 50% of the land to be given to the private builder, he said and alleged that it was a formula for a major scam. Prime road facing land would have been given to the builder for a pittance, he said. The Central government under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana has sanctioned in February 2016, 80,481 houses for Telangana over a period of 7 years - till 2022, he stated and questioned as to how much central funding would be available for the 2 BHK Housing Scheme in addition to this? The GHMC was asked to bear the cost of the IDH Scheme to an extent of Rs. 1.70 lakhs per house, he said and asked the government to tell whether it would construct 1 lakhs houses in one year mean that GHMC would have to shell out Rs 1,700 Crores for this scheme?. He reiterated his demand that the government release the White Paper and clarify all these issues. Lack of transparency and fraud While the State government was strictly implementing the norm that ‘Only One Person’ per family is entitled for benefits like pension, even if there are more than one who are eligible, in the much hyped IDH Scheme, 14 members belonging to a family of brother and sister have been allotted house in IDH, when at least 11 of them are not eligible for such an allotment due to pressure from the local MLA and Cinematography Minister T Srinivas Yadav, he said. Will the state government follow transparency in the allotment of these houses so that the eligible are not denied houses because of pressures like this?, he wondered. The Hyderabad Collector has been requested to cancel the allotment to such ineligible persons, which includes persons with other houses and both husband and wife are allotted 2 houses, a retired Gazetted Officer, who is a pensioner, and his wife have both been allotted 2 houses, he said adding a house has been allotted to a lady who and her husband are both central government employees. Several allottees have no eligibility and were allotted at the cost of the genuine eligible persons all belong to the same family, he alleged.