Hyderabad, May 19: Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has asked the finance department to examine the feasibility of enhancing the unit cost of houses under Indiramma housing scheme from Rs 31,200 to Rs 45,000 in rural areas and from Rs 43,000 to Rs 55,000 in urban areas.
The proposals will be placed before the Cabinet in its next meeting. The decision was taken in view of numerous requests from beneficiaries of Indiramma Housing scheme and also public representatives.
During a review meeting held at the Secretariat on Wednesday, Kiran Kumar Reddy agreed to the proposal to provide basic facilities like electricity and water in the new layouts.
He also agreed to sanction Rs 189.70 crore towards this and the funds would be provided by the Andhra Pradesh State Housing Corporation. The roads and drains will be taken up under the NREGS programme.
The officials of the finance department were asked to provide Rs 200 crore to the social welfare department towards land acquisition for Indiramma Housing so that funds from the Central government could also be leveraged.
While 19,97,444 applications were received during the Rachabanda programme, the officials verified 11,55,187 applications of which 7,18,377 beneficiaries were found eligible.
With regard to the completion of SC/ST houses which are lagging behind the schedule, the chief minister instructed the district collectors to have ground-level inspection and submit a report with evidence.
He also asked chief secretary SV Prasad to sanction an additional loan of Rs 20,000 for such houses and complete them immediately.
The officials were asked to chalk out a comprehensive plan of action to complete all the houses already grounded.
He asked them to launch a ‘Indiramma Housing Week’ programme to facilitate the visit of the ministers and public representatives to the colonies and layouts in every constituency.
“There are various problems for not completing the houses. We have to go to the ground level and find out the problems to solve them by helping the beneficiaries. All complaints should be verified and resolved at the earliest,” he said.
Till date, 63,94,947 houses were registered under Indiramma Housing scheme. In all, 46,97,802 houses were grounded of which 34,64,834 houses were completed.
The houses under progress are 12,32,968. During this financial year alone till May 15, the officials have completed 35,546 houses at a cost of Rs 210.18 crore.
CM urges PM to hike MSP for paddy
The chief minister has once again appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to consider enhancing the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy by Rs 200 per quintal.
He urged the Central government to increase the MSP from Rs 1,030 to Rs 1,230 for fine variety and Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200 for common variety.
The chief minister made several representations to the Prime Minister and also Union minister for food and agriculture Sharad Pawar in this regard.
Following directions from the chief minister, chief secretary SV Prasad is holding daily reviews on paddy procurement with the special officers appointed to oversee paddy procurement by the government agencies and millers.
It may be recalled that the state government appointed ten senior IAS officers to ten districts to supervise and coordinate paddy procurement.
The district collectors were instructed to ensure MSP for the paddy, supply of sufficient gunny bags, movement of purchased paddy from the market yards, and availability of godown space.
Of the 1.91 crore gunny bags available, the authorities have used 1.27 crore bags so far.
Another 78 lakh gunny bags were purchased recently which will arrive from Kolkata by rail in a couple of days.
A grievance redressal cell has been set up to assist the farmers.
–Agencies