Vijayawada: People on hillocks get pattas

Vijayawada: On his return from abroad, IT and PR&RD minister Nara Lokesh has addressed the housing issues to the landless poor in Vijayawada city by announcing the sanction of land pattas of 100 sq.ft each, to the people living on hillocks. Similarly, he started concentrating on the public issues in seven Assembly segments under the Vijayawada parliamentary constituency, as he is the incharge for the segment.

The announcement of Durga temple committee and party urban committee also have built confidence among party cadres that long-pending issues would be addre-ssed shortly. In fact, Vijayawada has been ranked third in urban population density per square mile or square km of urban built-up area. Demographia, a US-based international urban agency, in its 12th edition of Demographia World Urban Areas: 2016, revealed that Vijayawada hasd a projected population of 17.7 lakh living in 57 square kilometres of land area – 31,200 people in every square km.  

The city ranks third after Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Hyderabad, Pakistan, out of the 1,022 urban areas across the world that were considered for the study. After going through the density of the population on hillocks, the government has proposed pattas for them, which is a long pending demand, and being the in-charge of Vijayawada parliamentary constituency, Mr Lokesh has taken a decision to issue the pattas to around 60,000 people.

Speaking on the issue, TD urban unit president Buddha Venkanna said that within two months, the process of handing over pattas would be completed. “People living on hillocks in Vijayawada city, either individuals or societies, would be considered for house pattas,” Mr Venkanna said, who has been batting for the cause for the last few years. He also said that Mr Lokesh was briefed about the pathetic situation prevailing on hillocks and accordingly, the minister has mooted the proposal. In the last three years, this is the major programme taken up by the TD in Vijayawada urban area, which is aimed at garnering the support of people living on hillocks and tuning them towards TD in the next elections, a TD leader said.