State to seek more funds from Centre

Vijayawada: The State government has decided to write another letter to Prime Minster Narendra Modi about the insufficient funds that were allocated under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana housing scheme.

At a review meeting held at his residence on Saturday, the Chief Minister said that the funds were released based on the 2011 census, and that they were not as per expectations. He added that the Members of Parliament should put pressure on the Centre in this regard.

Outlining his ambitious plan, the Chief Minister said that the goal is to build 12 lakh houses and that under phase-one, the government aims at building 5 lakh houses.

He ordered that the Housing Department should be computerised immediately and that details should be linked to the CM’s Core Dashboard. He also mentioned that the houses should be geo-tagged and that bio-metrics should be used to avoid duplication.

He asked the officials to use technology for identification of beneficiaries, and suggested that they should make use of the information gathered during the recently held Smart Pulse Survey.

The Chief Minister suggested that sub-plan funds should be used to complete the construction of 10,000 houses granted under the Indira Awaas Yojana flagship programme for the year 2014-15.

He mentioned that during the last decade, massive irregularities took place in the housing sector, and to expose those irregularities there is constant vigilance.

He said that a meeting will be called with the vigilance officials, and a decision will be taken with regard to the houses allocated in the past.

The Chief Minister said that during his previous tenures, housing allocations were transparent and that the same should be followed and implemented now too.

He asked the officials to release Rs 200 crore for the construction of 30,884 houses for the BPL families and that the construction should be completed in 6 months.

The government has decided to build a total of 2,55,137 houses each year and so far it has spent Rs 309 crore on housing. The Chief Minister said that a total of Rs 932 crore is needed in order to complete the construction of all the houses.

The Chief Minister has asked Minister for Rural Development K Mrinalini to consider expanding the NTR housing up-gradation scheme to the urban areas also.

The Chief Minister announced that he would inaugurate the newly constructed houses using a remote during the forthcoming Housing Department review.