BRS Swindled Rs 9K Cr in 2BHK Scheme: BJP

Hyderabad: The Telangana state BJP on Wednesday said it will hold ‘public hearings’ with applicants of the state government’s two-bedroom housing scheme and also launch an agitation, highlighting the BRS government’s failure to deliver on its promise of housing for the poor.

Party state vice-president Kasam Venkateswarulu and former Khairatabad MLA Chintala Ramachandra Reddy told reporters that the Telangana government indulged in massive corruption in implementing the scheme and BRS leaders swindled around ₹9,000 crore in the process.

Venkateswarulu said that since the scheme was launched in 2015, the state government has only distributed 23,000 houses so far and claimed that another 70,000 were under construction. Many that have been built have not been given to the beneficiaries, he said, adding that on Thursday, party state president G. Kishan Reddy and other BJP leaders will visit Batasingaram, where houses were built but not handed over, currently lying in a dilapidated condition.

Ramachandra Reddy said the Central government gave ₹17,000 crore to the state for constructing houses for the poor and the state government must explain what happened to these funds.