'Batasingaram' exposes 2BHK housing scheme claims of BRS: BJP

Hyderabad: A simple plan by the state BJP president G. Kishan Reddy, accompanied by senior party leaders, to inspect the state of the promised two-bedroom houses in Batasingaram village in Ranga Reddy district, and his detention by the police and his forcible eviction from near Shamshabad airport to the BJP state party office, has revealed that the ruling BRS party has a serious ‘Batasingaram problem’.

Displaying pictures of incomplete structures of what were promised to become two bedroom houses for the poor at Batasingaram, BJP MP from Nizamabad, Arvind Dharmapuri and senior party leader N. Indrasena Reddy, addressing a press conference here on Thursday, said that Kishan Reddy’s arrest to prevent him from visiting Batasingaram clearly showed that the BRS government has much to hide.

Questioning the arrest, Arvind said that the state government was lying about the two bedroom housing programme.

“Of the 1,821 officials holding various positions in the housing department, which should be overseeing construction of houses for the poor, 1,316 were sent on deputation to other departments last year. There is no one in this department and it has been shut for all practical purposes,” he said.

Arvind said: “In the last three years, the state has in its budget documents, shown that it has allocated around ₹18,000 crore for the housing scheme. But the fact is that not a single rupee has been spent on it. Subsequently, the government said that it will provide cash assistance of ₹ five to six lakh to those who have plots to build their homes but even this too is in cold storage.”

He also said that though the state claims that it is funding the scheme, a close study of the state’s budget documents shows that funds for the programme also come from the PM Awas Yojana of the Central government.

“Kishan Reddy, as a Union cabinet minister, was on his way to inspect how central funds were being used when he was arrested summarily without even being given a reason. What message is K. Chandrashekar Rao intending to send to the people? That when the time comes, a BRS MLC allegedly involved in the Delhi liquor scam, can be dragged away by the police?” Arvind asked.

Indrasena Reddy said the Centre had given ₹1,300 crore to the state for the housing scheme and promised more if the state sends a list of beneficiaries who have been given houses till date. But this was not done.

“After I filed a PIL in the High Court on the two bedroom housing scheme fraud, the state government admitted to this in its affidavit. It was given three months to distribute the completed houses. This was a year back but nothing has been done in that regard,” he said.

He said a reply to an RTI filed by him earlier had revealed that the state claimed it sanctioned construction of 2,91,075 two bedroom houses. Of these 1,07,612, it said, were completed, and 20,000 allotted.

“Our demand is that the rest of the completed houses be distributed immediately as per central guidelines as central funds have been used. But if central guidelines are followed, then the state government cannot hand them over to BRS leaders and workers as it is planning to gain electoral advantage by distributing the houses just before the Assembly elections,” Indrasena Reddy said.