1 lakh houses only on paper

1 lakh houses only on paper
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Highlights

The CID probe into the biggest housing scam in Telangana has confirmed that around one lakh Indiramma houses are only on paper and that all the beneficiaries are fake. It has also found out that funds to the tune of Rs 200 crore have been siphoned off due to collusion of district officials, sarpanches and other local elected representatives.

Hyderabad: The CID probe into the biggest housing scam in Telangana has confirmed that around one lakh Indiramma houses are only on paper and that all the beneficiaries are fake. It has also found out that funds to the tune of Rs 200 crore have been siphoned off due to collusion of district officials, sarpanches and other local elected representatives.

  • CID completes probe into Indiramma Housing. It is the first biggest scam probe in Telangana
  • As much as `200 crore has been found to be siphoned off
  • Scam took place under Congress rule; none of its Ministers, MLAs named
  • Around 1,200 Housing Department officials held responsible
  • They contend issuing orders only on instructions of Ministers, MLAs and others

Interestingly, it is learnt that the report has not mentioned name of any of the people’s representative, ministers or Congress leaders though the scam took place when the party was in power in the united Andhra Pradesh. The report is, however, said to have held some officials as responsible for the misuse of funds.

The CID which completed the investigation that was ordered in July 2014 submitted a report to the official implementing agency of the housing scheme, the State Housing Department, recently. The report said that the construction work for 94,400 houses allotted to the beneficiaries by the Housing department was not taken up and the beneficiaries were also found to be fake.

The highest number of fake beneficiaries have been reported in Mahabubnagar at 25,560, followed by Adilabad (14,470), Medak (11,048) Karimnagar (9,250), Nalgonda (8,590), Ranga Reddy ( 8,100), Warangal (6584), Khammam (6,376) and in Nizamabad (4,222). Houses were allotted and the funds released but no work was done in the last four years.

The officials said that the investigation agency conducted a survey on 4.9 lakh houses allotted to the beneficiaries in the last four years. Of them, more than 94,000 houses have been not grounded yet. The official records said funds were released in the name of beneficiaries. When the officials visited the housing colonies, no houses were found and the beneficiaries were also found to be non-existent.

The report said the officials of the Housing Department from the rank of Work Inspector to Executive Engineer at district level were held responsible for the misappropriation of funds and the misuse of Indiramma housing scheme. About 1,200 employees were allegedly involved in the scam.

The report also mentioned that the employees claimed they had no role in the selection of beneficiaries. They issued house allotment orders to the beneficiaries only on the instructions of ministers, local MLAs and ruling party leaders. However, the report did not mention the role of any ministers or MLAs.

The Housing Department officials said that a decision on whether to take action against the tainted officials would be taken only after submitting a detailed report to the government by March end. It may be mentioned here that the Indiramma housing scheme was launched by late Chief Minister of united AP, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, in 2006, aiming to provide housing for all the poor in the State.

After the TRS came to power in 2014, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao ordered a CID probe in July last year following complaints on the misuse of funds. Under the housing scheme, an amount of Rs 50,000 is given as subsidy to the poor belonging to forward castes, Rs 70,000 to BCs and Rs 1.05 lakh to SC and ST beneficiaries.

By:Patan Afzal Babu

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