Vijayawada: Government blamed for dismal state of TIDCO houses

Vijayawada: Houses for the poor built at a cost of several hundreds of crores by the Township and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TIDCO) are lying useless due to the negligence of the State government, criticised the members of Andhra Pradesh Urban Citizens Forum (APUCF).

APUCF convener Ch Babu Rao, members Donepudi Kasinath, Boyi Satyababu, B Ramana Rao and B Nageswara Rao, former corporator Gade Adilakshmi and others visited TIDCO houses, both constructed and under construction at Jakkampudi and Shabada on the outskirts of the city on Friday.

Babu Rao said the previous government has sanctioned 28,152 houses but tenders were called for 10,624 houses. Construction of 8,496 houses was started and 80 per cent of the works pf 6,576 houses was completed. About 20,000 houses were cancelled. The government had cancelled 64,112 houses out of the sanctioned 96,138 houses throughout the district. Throughout the State, work was started on 2.92 lakh out of the 5 lakh houses sanctioned after cancelling nearly 2.10 lakh houses.

Babu Rao said the YSRCP government had promised construction of 30 lakh houses and laid foundation for 15 lakhs only. However, very few houses were completed. He deplored that the government was threatening people with cancellation of house sites, if they do not build houses instead of helping them for construction.

He said that it was outright cheating on the part of the government not to hand over the houses even after four years though it had collected Rs one lakh from people.

The APUCF members demanded immediate allocation of houses to the beneficiaries, otherwise they warned to launch protests in all towns and cities throughout the State on February 28. They also demanded Rs 5 lakh to all the beneficiaries to complete the construction of the houses in the allotted house sites.

Babu Rao appealed to people to participate in the dharna on February 28 at the Vijayawada municipal corporation.