Beneficiaries worried over continuation of flagship housing programme in AP

VIJAYAWADA: As many 16 lakh housing beneficiaries went into a state of confusion over the continuation of YSR Congress government's flagship Pedalandariki Illu (housing for all) scheme. This follows a high court order to halt the construction.

The government started the programme for providing houses for 30.76 lakh homeless people across districts and distributed them house sites. The construction was to be carried out in two phases under which 15.62 lakh houses would be readied in the first phase that started in June this year. The high court order has come as a shock to the beneficiaries.

The High Court cited violation of norms by the state while directing the government to halt it. The government filed a house motion in HC against the stay order but this too was rejected.

The YSRC government has earmarked Rs 28,084 crore for the erection of the YSR Jagananna Colonies in Phase 1. The aim was to complete the Phase-1 houses by June 2022, and complete the 12.70 lakh houses in Phase -2 by 2023. The total cost of the mega housing programme is Rs 50,944 crore.

Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy gave top priority to the housing programme by bringing it under the government's flagship Navaratnalu scheme. A sum of Rs 4,128 crore would be spent on providing drinking water, Rs 22,587 crore on roads and drainage, Rs 4,986 crore on power supply, Rs 627 crore on internet and Rs 567 crore on other facilities for these colonies at a total cost of RS 32,909 crore on physical infrastructure alone.

The government claimed to build each house on a 340 square feet area with a bedroom, hall, kitchen, bathroom and porch. Also, each house is provided with two fans, two tube lights, four bulbs, and a Syntex tank. This would become an asset worth Rs 5 to Rs15 lakh for each beneficiary.

The Covid19 crisis had an adverse impact on the earnings of most sections of the society for the past two years. Many people who were living in rented houses now face difficulty to pay rents and this encouraged them to swiftly go and start construction activity in the government-allotted house sites in the Jagannanna housing colonies.

Housing beneficiaries S. Jyothi and K. Ramu said they borrowed money from known sources and private financiers to speed up the completion of their houses construction with extra facilities apart from government-offered ones. They planned to shift into the new houses in the coming months. But the high court order stopped them in their tracks. They urged the government to resolve the problems at the earliest.  

CPI leaders K. Narayana and K. Ramakrishna welcomed the HC verdict and said one cent land in urban areas and 1.5 cent land in rural areas were insufficient for house construction. The government should give two cents in urban areas and three cents in rural areas for a comfortable living. They also said the Rs1.80 lakh offer from the government for the construction of a house was meagre and urged the government to provide the beneficiaries with Rs 5 lakh for each house or construct houses for them.