Exercise begins for Jagananna Smart Towns

Ongole: The state government is planning to layout, develop and sell plots of area 200 and 240 square yards near towns to middle-income group families under the name Jagananna Smart Towns. Following the orders of the municipal administration and urban development and its minister, the Director of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) directed the commissioners of urban local bodies to conduct the demand survey to decide the size and features of the smart town in each town and city.

The ward volunteers are already receiving the consent forms from the interested people.

In GO RT No 130, issued on March 23, the government noted that middle-class people are purchasing plots at unauthorised layouts resulting in legal disputes, traffic problems and lack of lung space, physical and social infrastructure, etc., In order to promote planned and integrated developments of various towns by providing the basic infrastructure and to safeguard the interests of the public, ensuring the availability of clear title, the government has decided to develop well-planned layouts with a proposed plot size of 200 and 240 square yards, the GO says.

The government also formed district and state-level committees with joint collector and commissioner and director of municipal administration as chairpersons respectively, with officials concerned, and ordered them to submit proposals for approval.

The government advised them to select the MIG (Middle-Income Group) layout sites at locations that have demand for house sites, having employment opportunities, ensuring source for potable water, having schools, transportation and medical facilities at reasonable range, and within 3 km from the developed area in the municipality and 5 km from municipal corporation.

Following the guidelines, the Ongole Municipal Corporation, for example, identified locations for Jagananna Smart Town at Koppolu, Muktinuthalapadu and Mangamur Donka Road and asked the public to give their preference.

Ongole Municipal Corporation mayor Gangada Sujatha said that the scheme will be helpful to the middle-class families to own a residential plot at an affordable price. She said that Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy keeps his promises and will provide the best infrastructure to the Smart Towns and develops them.

She said that following the response from the public, a favourable decision will be taken after discussing with the officials and more details will be announced about the layout accordingly.