9K houses for poor in 4 yrs

Tirupati: Even as other towns in the state limping in the implementation of the much beneficial housing schemes for poor, Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT) registered an astounding success by constructing 9,073 houses in the last four years.

This includes 4,056 houses under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) in Balaji Dairy and Tanapalli village and another 3,216 houses under the Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) in Padipeta and Kothuru and 1,800 more houses at Vikruthamala, near the city, under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) Housing scheme.

It may be noted here that the houses were sanctioned under JNNRUM during the previous Congress government but was in limbo, resulting in the TDP taking up the completion of the construction of houses after it came to power in 2014.

Houses constructed numbering 3,000 under IHSDP in Balaji Dairy area were already occupied by the beneficiaries while the allotment of remaining 1,056 houses in Tanapalli is going on and the houses are likely to be handed over to the beneficiaries in a month, according to Balakrishna Reddy, Divisional Engineer of the AP Housing Department.

Construction of 3216 houses under BSUP at Kothur and Padipeta villages near here was over and providing facilities like internal roads, water supply and electricity are in full swing after which the houses will be handed over to the beneficiaries, Reddy said, adding that of the 1,800 houses coming up in the third spell at Vikrthamala, 1,000 were completed and remaining will be over in six months.

In essence, allotment of all 9,073 houses under JNNRUM will be over before this year, he said. The beneficiary contribution for the houses under IHSDP was Rs 40,000 as against the total cost of Rs 3 lakh while cost of each house under BSUP was Rs 4 lakh in which the beneficiary contribution is Rs 80,000 as the houses under the scheme is more spacious than IHDSP, he explained.

MCT Revenue Officer N Sethumadhav said that the houses were allotted to the applicants, who applied from 2006 to 2010, after through screening including physical verification of the details of applicant by a team of revenue, housing and corporation filed officials and staff.

After clearing the 2006-2010 lists, those appliedduring the first, second and third Janmabhumi programmes i.e. 2014-16, were taken for allotment of JNNRUM houses. Ruling out any ineligible person cornering the benefit, he said thanks to Aadhaar the scope of misuse is almost curtailed and added that almost all those applied up to 2016 is cleared.

Apart from JNNRUM houses, 1,039 houses sanctioned under Housing for All (HFA) scheme is also under various stages of completion taking the total of the new houses coming up to 10,111.

“The Chief Minister impressed over the Corporation’s performance announced a bonanza of another 10,000 houses for Tirupati for allotment to those applied in 2017,” he stated. A visit to IHSDP Colony in Balaji Dairy revealed that they were happy at getting the houses after long wait with all the facilities.

By G Sridhar