Plea to hand over TIDCO houses

Ongole: The poor people who have applied for the TIDCO houses in the earlier TDP government and for the housing plots in the YSRCP government are demanding the state government to distribute one of them immediately, to save them from the rental burden.

During 2014-19, the TDP government implemented NTR Urban and Rural Housing Schemes across the state.

In Ongole, the government decided to construct a total of 4,128 houses for the beneficiaries as apartment complexes in two places at Chintala and Koppole and handed over the responsibility to Andhra Pradesh Township and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited.

The construction of the 2,544 flats of 300 sft area, 624 flats of 365 sft area, and 960 flats of 430 sft area were delayed, disappointing the beneficiaries who paid the advance amount for the houses.

The YSRCP government during 2019-24, neglected the construction until 2023 and announced individual housing plots for the poor in the Jagananna Townships under the Pedalandari Illu programme.

The disputes over the selected land for the scheme caused delays and forced the government to select land at two different places, the Malleswara Puram Agraharam and Vengamukkapalem.

At last, just before the recent elections, the government distributed the registration certificates for about 21,000 plots of one-cent area but failed to show where the plot is. In the meantime, in 2023, the government announced plans to complete the TIDCO houses and distribute them to the desired beneficiaries, but the process never took place.

During election campaign, TDP promised to complete the TIDCO houses and distribute plots of the two-cent area to the necessary beneficiaries.

The YSRCP promised to construct houses for free in the given one-cent area housing plot. As the TDP came to power now, the beneficiaries whose names are announced to be the owners of the TIDCO flats, and the one-cent plots are now demanding the government to fulfil its promises now.

The MAUD Minister P Narayana recently conducted a review meeting with the concerned officials and ordered them to complete the construction of the TIDCO houses very soon. But, in Ongole, the ground reality is different.

Officials revealed that only 70 per cent of the houses were complete, while no infrastructure was provided in the layouts at Koppole and Chintala.

They informed that the YSRCP government removed the original contractors L&T Construction and Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Limited for the TIDCO houses in the name of reverse tendering, but did not pay the full amount for their work done by then.

The Inderjit Mehta Constructions Pvt Ltd, which got the tender in 2021, has completed the works of 300 sft flats by 93 per cent at Koppole, and it takes more time, maybe until the end of the year. Regarding the housing flats at MP Agraharam and Vengamukkapalem, the municipal commissioner M Jaswanth Rao said that the registration documents given to the beneficiaries before the elections are still valid.

If any of the beneficiaries want to construct their house, the OMC is bound to show the location of the plot and the boundaries, he said. The public who paid for the TIDCO houses have also applied for the one-cent housing plots and many of them were beneficiaries of both schemes. They are demanding the government to give TIDCO houses, with all infrastructures in place or provide two cents of land for the housing, immediately.

Some of the TIDCO house beneficiaries paid the advances to the government by taking loans and paying hefty interest to the lenders.

They are demanding the government to refund the money paid almost 10 years ago but assure them they will get the plot they paid for as compensation for the interest and waiting.