Shashidhar Reddy wants white paper on 2-BHK scheme

Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader and former Sanathnagar MLA Marri Shashidhar Reddy asked the TRS government to issue a white paper on its flagship free two-bedroom house scheme for the poor. He alleged that information about the scheme is not clear to the public.
Shashidhar Reddy also charged the government with irregularities in terms of allotment of houses in IDH Colony under the scheme.He demanded the district collector of Hyderabad to cancel such illegal allotments. "The TRS, before and after 2014 elections, raised people's expectations on the two-bedroom houses. But, the government has not come up with a clear-cut policy on the scheme even after two years in office. People are clueless about the progress of the scheme. The government must release a white paper to explain the status of its implementation," he said.
The TRS government under chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had promised to build 2.60 lakh houses in two years starting from January this year but there is no sign of works taking off, except for repair and whitewash of the existing 60,000 houses across the state.
"IT minister K Taraka Rama Rao had said in February that Tata Housing was interested in the construction of 2-BHK houses under the scheme. What is the status of the proposal?" the Congress leader asked.
He also sought to know how much land was acquired for the scheme so far. Referring to transfer of seven acres of prime land near the Mumbai national highway for the scheme, Shashidhar Reddy said that the move appeared to be government's plan to turn the scheme into a public-private partnership (PPP) as GHMC mayor Bonthu Rammohan had hinted at roping in private builders.
Throwing light on instances where 14 members of a family were allotted separate houses at IDH Colony in Secunderabad, he said that such examples clearly showed large-scale irregularities under the scheme. He added that 11 members of that family were not even eligible beneficiaries. "There are many more such instances and therefore, the district collectors must cancel the allotment immediately and punish the culprits," he said.