Hyderabad: Rajiv Gandhi Nagar allottees demand houses

Bagh Lingampally:  Poor people were asked to vacate their own houses with the promise that they will soon get proper double bedroom houses with all facilities. Since more than three years, the residents of Sri Rajiv Gandhi Nagar in Bagh Lingampally are forced to pay exorbitant house rent. Some are managing to live even in huts, as they still wait for their own dwellings. Though it has been more than three years that they had been made to vacate their homes with the promise of a double bedroom housing complex at the same location, it is yet to be delivered. The allottees are residing in huts and rented houses. Distressed over non-allotment of houses, a family staged a demonstration in the area during rain. Fully drenched, the family members urged the government to provide them houses immediately. About 100 people gathered, with their documents, at the collector's office under the banner of the Sri Rajiv Gandhi Nagar Committee and raised slogans demanding houses.

A resident, Mohd Saber, said, "Many people were given allotment letters of double-bedroom houses. Old dwellings were demolished. It has been over three years; yet the government has not constructed houses, under the State Housing Scheme, which is promised for all residents." People who were residing in the area for 50 years alleged that the land has been encroached by a developer. Even after submitting several representations to authorities no action was taken against him."

According to Abrar Hussain Azad, a resident, there were 164 houses.The government promised the same but only 104 families were allotted houses. Only 54 people till now received houses. The rest were given only flat possession documents, but not flats. He said the open space in the area which was to be a park for the residents was being encroached by developers. "Another part of the area is being used to lay a road by creating a dead-end," Azad claimed.

Residents said there was no point in laying roads, as houses were not provided; we demand double bedroom houses, they asserted.