Telangana: FGG wants CID inquiry, action on Indiramma housing scam

Hyderabad: Alleging serious irregularities in implementation of Indiramma Housing Scheme and also attempts to close the case, the Forum for Good Governance demanded the Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to direct the government for quick CID inquiry and action against the responsible.

The FGG Secretary M Padmanabha Reddy alleged that there were serious irregularities in the implementation of the housing programme. He said in the year 2009, the government issued GO 266 on April 19, and constituted teams to conduct integrated door to door surveys at village level in the entire state.

The survey revealed that 1.95 lakh ineligible beneficiaries were allotted houses violating rules and an amount of Rs 235.90 crore were paid to these ineligible beneficiaries.

Padmanabha Reddy said that the survey revealed that in all 508 employees were found involved in the scam and out of which 150 employees were placed under suspension and 68 employees were removed. About 294 non-officials like Sarpanchs etc were also found involved.

Criminal cases were filed against 85 officials and 94 non officials. The government ordered recovery of Rs 235.9 crore under Revenue Recovery Act, but there was no record to show that the recovery was made and no follow up action was taken to pursue 179 cases registered against officials and non-officials.

The CID inquiry covering 36 villages involving 22,000 houses, found that 1,022 houses were found not constructed but payments were made. The FGG went to court and the court directed CID to complete the inquiry within 10 months from the date of judgment on January 1, 2016.

Padmanabha Reddy said that inspite of clear orders from the High Court, the inquiry is not completed nor any action was taken against the officials and non officials. He said that if the culprits of Indiramma housing scam were not brought to book there was a possibility that such scam may repeat in double bedroom houses taken up by the Telangana government.

The FGG wanted the Governor to direct the government to take up quick inquiry and also take steps to recover the amounts illegally paid to non existence houses.