CM waives `3,920cr for poor house owners

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday announced waiving of `3,920 crore arrears owed by beneficiaries of the weaker sections housing scheme and the Rajiv Gruhakalpa scheme.

Mr Rao told a short discussion on 2BHK houses, that there was no question of reviving the Housing Corporation. “Closing this corporation which is riddled with corruption is a policy decision,” Mr Rao told the Assembly.

Mr Rao said that the state government would construct only 2BHK houses in future. He said that the government would build the 2.6 lakh 2BHK houses before the elections. The tender process was going on and had been finalised for 14,224 houses of which 1,217 had been constructed.

He said contractors were hesitating to apply for the 2BHK house tenders as they were busy with Mission Kakatiya, Mission Bhagiratha, irrigation projects and roads construction.

The Chief Minister said that the margin for building 2BHK houses was not much, and the government was discussing with contractors and major companies to take up the construction as a social responsibility.

He said the government would supply sand for the construction free, and had entered into MoUs with 31 companies to buy cement at `230 a bag.

He said there was no shortage of funds as the state government had allotted `17,660 crore for the purpose and the Centre had agreed to give `1.5 lakh per house.

Later, Opposition leader K. Jana Reddy said the Congress government had take an informal decision not to collect the arrears, and thanked Mr Rao for waving them.

In the Council, Leader of the Opposition in Council Mohd Ali Shabbir said against the promise of 2 lakh houses per annum and 10 lakh houses in five years, the government had constructed a mere 300 flats in IDH Colony, Hyderabad and about 500 houses in Erravalli and Narasannapet in Siddipet district.

He accused the government of shielding those who joined TRS from Congress involved in irregularities in housing scheme during Congress rule.

“All the thieves are now in your party. Why don’t you take action? There were irregularities during Congress and TD rule. Some sarpanches, MPTCs, ZPTCs etc are in the TRS. We fully support any action against such persons,” he remarked.

The comment led to protests from TRS members.