VIJAYAWADA: State govt will formally hand over keys to about 1.14 lakh beneficiaries of housing scheme on Feb 1.
Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu will participate in a mass house-warming ceremony at Thetali village of Tanuku constituency. All the ministers, legislators and ruling party leaders have been asked to kick-start the programme in their constituencies soon after the CM launched the programme.
Housing minister Kolusu Parthasaradhi said that the govt completed 1.14 lakh houses in the last six months despite facing severe financial crisis created by the previous YSRCP regime.
“Chief minister directed the district collectors and legislators to start identifying the house-sites to be granted to the poor. The chief minister had decided to grant 3 cents of land in rural areas and two cents in urban areas,” said the minister.
He said that a high-level committee headed by revenue minister was constituted at the state-level and district committees would be headed by the district collectors. He said that they would shortly release guidelines for the house-sites scheme.
He said that the CM is determined to provide pucca house to every eligible poor in the state and added that the scheme has been designed to provide houses to the poor. He said that the previous govt had diverted 4,500 crore released by the Centre under housing scheme pushing the beneficiaries into trouble. He said that they have already released 502 crore to clear old dues to the beneficiaries.
He promised to clear the bills of all the beneficiaries who completed their houses between 2014-19. He alleged that the previous govt had deliberately scuttled the payment of 900 crore to the poor beneficiaries just because the houses were launched during TDP regime.
He said that the Centre extended the deadline for completion of PMAY 1.0 till Dec 2025 from Dec 2024 following a request made by the chief minister.
He said that they were working overtime to complete seven lakh houses by Dec. He said that they would create about seven crore working days under NREGS and wages to the tune of 2,100 crore would be released under the housing scheme. He said that the material component under NREGS would also help state fetch GST revenue.
He said that the CM is also contemplating increasing the unit cost to provide additional incentive to SCs and STs. He said that they were granting 50,000 to SCs and 75,000 to STs under the present scheme.
