2-bedroom nightmare for basti dwellers

​Mahbubnagar: The double-bedroom scheme promised by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to basti dwellers in Old Palamuru, Harijanawada, Yerramannugutta, Pata Thota and Veerannapeta colonies of Mahbubnagar district on this very day two years ago remains unfulfilled.

As many as 32 house owners in the Harijanawada colony have dismantled their houses after the officials asked them to do so and hand over the land for the construction of double-bedroom houses.

However, even after two years, there is neither sign of officials nor any kind of development from the housing department.

According to one of the residents of Pata Thota who does not want to be quoted, KCR who visited their colonies expressed concern about the pathetic living conditions and promised to provide double-bedroom houses for all the colony dwellers.

“After six months, the officials visited the colony and informed them about their plan to construct double bedroom houses and asked us to dismantle the existing ones and clear the land for the construction,” he said.

However they did not inform them about their plan clearly and later they told them that some of the residents will have to be relocated to some other places. He said the residents had objected to this and demanded that construction of the houses be taken up at the same place.

After that the officials never came back and the residents are left in the open with no shelter and have to face many problems during rainy season and winter months, he said.

Another resident said KCR promised to provide double-bedroom houses to all and even promised to return in just a week’s time to lay foundation stone. However, all the promises seem to have been forgotten. “Even the local officials have stopped visiting us,” he said.

When contacted Ramana Rao, Project Director, Housing Mahbubnagar, said, “we have already conducted a survey of the entire area and have identified as many as 2,300 people as eligible beneficiaries of these colonies and have asked them to vacate the land so that we can plan accordingly to accommodate as many double bedroom houses as possible.

Majority of the residents are living in 50-60 sq yard houses and as per the standard housing plan we need at least 100-120 sq yards to construct a double bedroom houses.

Therefore we proposed G+1 scheme to the basti dwellers, so that all of them can be accommodated in the same locality.

Though they had agreed for it in the initial meeting and had even given in writting, now they are back tracking. He said they had offered individual houses, provided they agree to relocate. But they are not willing even for this proposal and hence the project was getting delayed, he said.

At present, the housing department is constructing nearly 1,000 double bed room houses at Divitipally over an extent of 52 acres of land and about 337 houses at Adarshnagar near Kristanpally over an extent of 16 acres of land.

While the Aadarshnagar housing scheme is nearing completion, the Divitipally project is moving at a snail’s pace.