Andhra Pradesh Govt to fast track housing scheme
In a smart political move two years ahead of the 2019 elections, the state government has decided to fast-track the 'housing for all' scheme. The government, which spent little on the housing scheme in the last 30 months, upped the budgetary grant to 1,450 crore this year with a view to kick-starting construction. Highly-placed sources said the government is planning to rope in top builders to achieve the target ahead of the schedule. Work on 2.5 lakh houses in the rural areas and another 1.1 lakh houses in the urban areas will be taken up simultaneously. Municipal administration minister P Narayana told that identification of beneficiaries in the urban areas has been completed and works will be launched any time soon. Houses in the urban areas would be taken up in three modules. While group housing will be taken up for the landless poor, work will be taken up by an agency nominated by the government where the beneficiaries own small extent of house sites. "We are planning to complete the construction and hand over the keys to the owner in the next 8-10 months. Owning a decent house will definitely make the beneficiary happy and automatically they will extend support to the government," observed Narayana. The scheme will be executed under the NTR housing programme. All houses will have double-bedrooms. Interestingly, the government earmarked 1,450 crore for the scheme despite knowing fully well that the housing department had spent only 42 per cent of the allotted funds in the current fiscal.
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