Housing funds misused under Congress

Vijayawada: Minister for housing Kalava Srinivasulu said that Rs 4,000 crore was misused during the Congress rule in the past in housing scam and action was taken against several officials. Answering a question in Assembly on Monday, Srinivasulu said that the houses were allotted to the leaders of Congress illegally in the past. They produced fake documents in the name of innocent people for looting the public money, he said.

The government had even filed cases against the responsible persons and 65 officials were suspended for their role in the scam, he said. He also said that the government initially agreed to release Rs 500 crore for restarting the construction of houses which were stalled midway due to various reasons. Recently 38,000 houses were completed after releasing of funds. The government has regularised the houses which were built based on the assurance, he said.

On the occasion, several MLAs requested the government to take decision to ensure houses to all the eligible persons. Government Chief Whip Palle Raghunatha Reddy said that while genuine beneficiaries were waiting for the housing benefit but the Congress leaders looted the houses in the name of innocent people in various constituencies across the state. Now the rules do not allow to sanction houses to the worthy persons, he regretted and asked the government to make changes by collecting grass-root level original feedback.  

MLA V Prabhakara Chowdary asked the government to conduct a massive drive for collecting complaints from the public on housing scheme. He also suggested that the government design a scheme to introduce one time settlement with the Centre’s support for paying housing loans in the state.