Despite completion of thousands of double bedroom housing units, the government has been dragging its feet when it comes to identification of beneficiaries and allotment of homes in the city.
The fact was brought out through a petition under the Right To Information Act, by the CPI(M) city unit.
As per the details shared by the party’s city secretary M. Srinivas at a media conference on Tuesday, construction of 51,346 double bedroom units has been completed in the city till now, while State-wide, the figure is over one lakh.
Another 33,209 dwelling units in city are nearing completion, and ready for distribution in a few months.
However, so far, the number of units allotted to beneficiaries in the city stands at mere 3,660, Mr.Srinivas shared, and questioned the rationale behind keeping the units vacant for years.
The government has taken up the double bedroom housing project after formation of Telangana as separate State, and sanctioned 2.91 lakh dwelling units so far across the State with an estimated expenditure of ₹ 19,000 crore.
So far, the government has spent ₹ 10428 crore on construction of the units, of which ₹ 8745 crore has been availed as loan from the HUDCO, while Central government has sanctioned ₹1311 crore as its share, the reply to the RTI petition said.
State government, on the other hand, sanctioned a total of ₹ 23,679 crore towards the project over the last six years, of which only ₹ 371 crore has been spent going by the RTI reply, Mr. Srinivas pointed out.
As per the Intensive Household Survey carried out by the Telangana government, the number of poor people without home is estimated to be at 4.57 lakh. Government has later received a whopping seven lakh applications for the double bedroom housing units.
Both these numbers reflect the magnitude of the affordable housing needs in the State, but the government is delaying the process of identification of beneficiaries inordinately, disregarding its own orders issued a year-and-a-half ago for allotment of 4,125 units per constituency, Mr. Srinivas accused.
Meanwhile, the needy people are falling into the trap of middlemen from the ruling party, hoping for allotment of the housing units, he alleged. While the poor are forced to pay for rented accommodation, public money is wasted on payment of interest on loans availed for the project, he said.
Demanding speedy identification of beneficiaries and allotment of completed housing units, CPI(M) will start relay hunger strikes from August last week, Mr.Srinivas said.
