Congress demands White Paper on status of 2BHK scheme

Hyderabad: The Congress party on Thursday demanded that the TRS Government come out with a White Paper on the status of implementation of double bed room housing scheme for weaker sections in Telangana State.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Thursday, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Official Spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin said that as against nearly 2.80 lakh houses sanctioned for economically weaker sections, the TRS Government, in the last five years, constructed only 16,370 units."This shows that only 5.83% of promised houses have been delivered while rest 94% beneficiaries are still waiting without any clue on when they would get the delivery of double bed room houses which were promised by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao in 2014 elections," he said.

Nizamuddin alleged that the Chief Minister was never serious on the implementation of the 2BHK scheme. He said sufficient funds were never allocated for the scheme in any of budgets presented by TRS regime. "According to the Intensive Household Survey done by TRS Govt in August 2014, there are more than 22 lakh BPL families living in rented houses. However, he said TRS Govt has sanctioned only 2.80 lakh houses and of them, so far, only 16,370 units have been constructed. When will remaining 20 lakh other deserving families get a house?" he asked.

The Congress leader said as on Thursday, the TRS completed 1810 days in power and in order to achieve the target of 2.80 lakh houses, the government, on an average, should have constructed at least 155 houses per day. However, he said that the average was less than 9 units a day which is far from satisfactory. He said that the TRS Govt was not releasing sufficient funds for the early completion of the project. Of Rs. 8,500 crore earmarked for the project in the GHMC limits, so far, only Rs. 3,500 crore have been released.

"Before the GHMC elections, one pilot project of 396 units was completed in IDH colony in 2015. This was used to create hype and cheat the poor people of Hyderabad. Lakhs of poor people vacated their slums with the assurance from the GHMC officials that the houses would be constructed, completed and handed over to them in six months time. TRS ministers and MIM leaders also laid foundation stones for 2BHK houses in various localities. Lakhs of applications from homeless people were received by TRS and MIM leaders. Later, all those applications were dumped in garbage as there is no record of those applications either with the District Collector, GHMC or Housing Department. The then Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) K.T. Rama Rao had promised that the year 2018 would be marked by house warming ceremonies of the 2BHK beneficiaries. But once the GHMC elections were over, the promises were forgotten. Only 176 units in Singam Cheruvu Thanda in Nacharam were completed and handed over to beneficiaries during March 2018. All other units were delayed and today thousands of poor slum dwellers, who vacated their slums for 2BHK houses, are forced to live in rented houses by paying Rs. 4,000-6,000 monthly rent," he said.

Nizamuddin alleged that there was there was a bigger conspiracy behind the delay in execution of the 2BHK projects. He said the TRS Govt apparently wants to increase the per unit cost to benefit the contractors. He said that the unit cost of Rs. 6.29 lakh in Rural, Rs. 6.05 in Urban, Rs. 7.75 lakh in GHMC upto G+3 and Rs. 8.65 Lakh in GHMC C+S+9 were finalised. He said delay in execution of the project would automatically escalate the unit cost due to various factors. Further, he said that an agreement was signed with 32 cement companies in 2016 for supply of 27.25 Lakh Metric Tonnes of PPC/PSC cement in next three years for construction of 2,72,596 2BHK houses @ Rs. 230 per bag. This Agreement will come to an end in October 2019. It means that the government will have to buy cement at market price or some other higher price if the project gets delayed beyond October this year. "TRS Govt is unable to fund the project at present cost. How will it fund, if the cost of construction of goes up further?" he asked.

"TRS Govt is not serious on providing houses to poor people. KCR and KTR only made tall claims and fake promises, but did nothing practical to deliver sanctioned houses. Congress party never made tall promises and solved the weaker section housing programme with total sincerity. Previous Congress Govt has delivered over 22,89,829 housing units under Indiramma and other schemes from 2004-2014," he claimed and said that the people could cross the figures from the official website of Housing Corporation.

The Congress leader demanded that the TRS Govt publish a White Paper giving exact status of on implementation of 2BHK scheme, along with clear-cut deadlines on the completion of each site in the State. Further, he demanded that all selected beneficiaries be paid compensation towards rent which they've have been from the date of evacuation till final delivery of 2BHK units. He said that the Congress party too would approach all the beneficiaries to prepare an agitation plan so as to pressurise the government for early completion of their 2BHK houses.

Hyderabad City Congress (HCC) Minorities Department Chairman Sameer Waliullah was also present in the press conference.