Jagananna Colonies: 10.4 lakh houses under construction in State says Cherukuvada Sri Ranganatha Raju

Vijayawada: Minister for Housing Cherukuvada Sri Ranganatha Raju has said 10.40 lakh houses are under construction under the Jagananna colonies housing programme in the State.

Sri Ranganatha Raju participated in the short discussion on housing in the Legislative Council on Monday, the eighth day of the Assembly budget session at Velagapudi in Amaravati.

He announced that the State government has decided to distribute 25 lakh house sites and construct 30 lakh houses for the poor. He said that 10.50 lakh houses were under construction under Jagananna colonies programme.

He said the government was giving cement on subsidy at Rs 225 per bag and steel was also being supplied to the beneficiaries. He said Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has recently issued orders to give 50 more bags to the beneficiaries if they wanted to construct big houses.

He said the State and Central governments were working in co-ordination for construction of houses. He said the houses will be built after developing basic infrastructure facilities. The Housing Minister said during the 3,400 km long Padayatra which was undertaken by Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, a large number of people particularly women had asked for allotment of houses or construction of houses. He said with the initiative taken by the government each family will own an asset of own house worth Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

MLC Katti Narasimha Reddy has questioned how the State government would complete the Jagananna housing colonies works with allocation of meagre amount. He said according to estimates, the government needs at least Rs 50,000 crore for infrastructure development in the housing colonies. The Minister replied that some government departments like Panchayat Raj, PWD and corporations like Power Finance Corporation would also render assistance for construction of houses in the State.

BJP member P Madhav pointed out that the Central government was sanctioning Rs 1.80 lakh for construction of each house. He said the State government was naming housing colonies as Y S Jagananna Colonies and questioned why there was no mention of Prime Minister in the colonies.

Replying to it, the Minister said the State government was spending heavily on land acquisition and development of infrastructure facilities in the Jagananna Housing Colonies.