Cong leader raises a stink over 2-BHK allotments

Hyderabad: Former Minister and senior Congress leader Marri Sashidhar Reddy alleged discrepancies in the distribution of 2 BHK houses by the government. Citing an example of allotment of houses in IDH Colony, he said that 14 members of a single family were provided flats under the housing scheme.

Speaking to the media on Thursday at Gandhi Bhavan, he said that the State government was trumpeting its transparency regarding the allotment of flats, but there were 14 people closely related to one another, who were allotted flats in IDH Colony. He further said that out of the 14, at least 11 were not even eligible for the scheme. “The houses were allotted at the behest of local MLA and Minister Srinivas Yadav,” he alleged.

Providing details of the ‘ineligible’ persons, he said that in one particular instance, both husband and wife were allotted two houses. Similarly, a retired Gazetted officer (Pensioner) and his wife were allotted houses along with a couple who were Central government employees.

Demanding a white paper on the 2 BHK scheme, Sashidhar Reddy alleged that the government did not have a clear policy about the scheme even after two years. “Foundations were laid for about 60,000 houses in all the constituencies in the State on Dasara in 2015 and there was hectic foundation-laying activity last year, in the run up to the recent elections to GHMC and other Corporations.

Those 60,000 houses were to be completed in 6-months time. What is the status today?” he questioned. With the involvement of private players as announced by Minister K T Rama Rao who referred to the TATA Group’s interest in the scheme, he felt that the government was slowly trying to push the scheme into a Public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

“The GHMC Commissioner has stated that the scheme would be taken up on a PPP mode with 50 % of the land to be given to the private builder. This is a formula for a major scam, said Sashidhar Reddy.