Selection of beneficiaries for 2BHKs raises a stink, BRS high command takes a hit

ADILABAD: The selection of beneficiaries for the 2BHK housing scheme has become a headache to the BRS and its leaders in the erstwhile Adilabad district.

The allegations of corruption, raised against two MLAs representing ST reserved constituencies in the Adilabad region, at a meeting held by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, have embarrassed the ruling party.

This apart, the applicants who did not get the houses through the lottery are staging protests, alleging corruption and bias in the selection of candidates.

It is found that many from well-to-do families, government employees and businessmen got 2bhks. Such names had also been included in the recently selected beneficiaries for 2BHK in Kagaznagar town in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.

The local revenue authorities began the process of selecting the beneficiaries from the total applicants for the 280 2BHK houses from 30 wards in the Kagaznagar municipality and houses constructed at Sarigam village in Kagaznagar rural mandal.

The revenue officials kept the selection of beneficiaries from the 8th and 9th wards in the dark and released a list of beneficiaries from these two wards without lottery in the public domain.

Allegations are that the local tahsildar secretly selected the beneficiaries in his office and later announced that the beneficiaries were chosen through a lottery system in the public sphere.

There are allegations that, in reality, the BRS leaders selected the beneficiaries for 2BHK by taking bribes of two to four lakh.

Local MLAs, it is said, were well aware of corruption in the section of 2BHKs in their respective assembly constituencies; and the issue reached the party's high command.

A question that remained unanswered is, how were the well-to-do families, businessmen and government employees selected as beneficiaries for the 2BHKs while the poor without a home and living in slums or rented houses have been edged out of the welfare scheme?

The non-tribals had protested against a statement issued by Utnoor tahasildar that only tribals are eligible for the 2BHK units erected in the tribal areas and that tribals only should apply for these dwellings.

Ramesh of Utnoor alleged that the selection of beneficiaries for 2BHK was not transparent. Both political involvement and money played their dirty roles in the selection of beneficiaries. He said genuine and eligible applicants are not getting these homes while ineligible are appropriating them via dubious means.