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Telangana minister KT Rama Rao. (Supplied)
With the Assembly elections drawing closer, the BRS government in Telangana is treading carefully in allotting double-bedroom houses to beneficiaries.
During a review meeting with ministers, MLAs, and officials on Friday, 8 September, Municipal Administration and IT Minister KT Rama Rao made no bones about making officials responsible for any irregularities in the construction and allocation of the houses.
“If any irregularities occur, the officials will have to face the music. If necessary, they will be dismissed from service. Collectors of districts concerned should act with an iron hand. It is their responsibility to see that nothing goes amiss,” he said.
During the review, which turned into a pep talk later, the minister told officials to bear in mind that the double-bedroom housing programme did not have a parallel anywhere in the country. No other government has constructed 560 sq ft houses to be gifted to beneficiaries.
“In Hyderabad, the beneficiaries are getting the houses which are valued at ₹50 lakh each, free of cost,” he said, adding that though the government spent only ₹9,100 crore on the construction of the double-bedroom houses, their market value was about ₹50,000 crore.
The second phase of the distribution of 13,300 houses will commence on 21 September. The houses are being allotted to eligible poor families. “They are selected most transparently,” KTR said.
He reiterated that neither MLAs nor other people’s representatives have any role in the finalisation of the beneficiaries. The officials would decide the eligibility. Beneficiaries were selected through a draw of lots in the presence of the media.
The minister said that the government was ready to allot double-bedroom houses to those who had constructed houses illegally in the catchment area of Musi River. “We will pursue this programme also with equal vigour,” he said.
The minister wanted the entire programme implemented without any discordant notes and hence his directions to the ministers, MLAs, and officials to see that eligible beneficiaries’ selection was done most transparently.
Incidentally, he might have reminded the officials that the implementation of the programme should be done smoothly against the backdrop of the ruckus that took place in the Medchal-Malkajgiri district on Thursday.
It was when Labour Minister Ch Malla Reddy lost his cool and shouted at the top of his voice while distributing 2BHK flats in Bommarasipeta Gram Panchayat of Shamirpet Mandal of Medchal Malkajgiri district when locals questioned him over the unfair allotment of houses to the beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries stood in front of the dais and raised slogans against the minister, accusing him of being partial in allotting the flats. An argument took place between irate local residents and the minister over the issue.
The Municipal Administration Department has the onerous task of distributing about one lakh double-bedroom houses in and around Hyderabad where the BRS wants to take maximum political advantage and bag as many of the 24 Assembly seats in the GHMC area and four more in the neigbouring districts, considered as city segments.
The first phase of distribution of the houses began on 2 September. In this phase, 11,700 houses were allotted.
As the double-bedroom scheme has been seen as a powerful political weapon, the BRS wants to use it to retrieve the ground, perceived to have lost to the BJP in the GHMC elections in 2020 when the saffron party, under the leadership of the then state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, had made smart gains.
It ended with a tally of 48 out of the 150 seats in the GHMC. The BJP had won only four seats in the 2016 GHMC elections.
The BRS’ tally of 99 seats in 2016 thus crashed to 55 in 2020 in the GHMC. The realisation that it was losing ground in Hyderabad must have come as a rude jolt.
For the past one week, the BRS leaders in Hyderabad and surrounding municipalities had no other work except the finalisation of the beneficiary list and handing over the keys to them to prevent further hemorrhage of votes to rival parties.
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