Rs 1L crore earmarked to build 21L houses in Andhra Pradesh

Anantapur/Puttaparthi: Minister for Housing Jogi Ramesh said that the State government was spending Rs 100,000 crores on its prestigious housing programme of building 21 lakh houses. For building houses alone Rs 40,000 crore, Rs 25,000 crore on land acquisition and Rs 35,000 crore on infrastructure development. This is a largest enterprise ever taken up by any government.

Addressing a review meeting to monitor progress of the ambitious project after visiting a housing layout in Raptadu constituency, Jogi Ramesh said that officials need to actively move out of their chambers to execute and monitor the progress going on a massive scale.

He stated that the 'Gadapa Gadapaku' programme is itself aimed at connecting with the people and to ascertain whether or not the government schemes are reaching the people. The officials too must actively participate along with the people's representatives as partners in the programme. He said that right from village volunteer to the District Collector, everyone in their might must get involved in solving problems if any and in successful completion of the project.

The Central government sanction 1.30 crore houses for the entire country out of which AP could grab 21 lakh using its clout in the Union government.

The Housing Minister revealed that the Raptadu MLA's construction company came forward to building houses at Rs 2.15 lakh each at a time when no one came forward to take up housing construction and the result is 350 other construction companies came forward to build houses for beneficiaries who insisted on government building their houses.

Housing Special Chief Secretary Ajay Jain stressed on coordination between departments for housing programme to succeed. By December 2023, 21 lakh houses need to be completed. All departments must cooperate to achieve the targeted result. Guntakal MLA Y Venkatram Reddy urged Ajay Jain to do justice to 4,000 Indiramma housing beneficiaries of the past whose house sites were cancelled to accommodate the Jagananna new housing beneficiaries. About 4,000 people who lost their house sites need to be accommodated.

MLC Sivaram Reddy urged Jain for facilitating dumping yards near all housing colonies. Woman and Child Welfare Minister Usha Sri Charan, MP Gorantla Madhav, local MLA Anantha Reddy and other legislators participated. District Collector Nagalakshmi Selvarajan presided over the meeting.