Gudivada: Beneficiaries continue to wait with bated breath

Gudivada (Krishna district) : The beneficiaries of Gudivada TIDCO houses, who have been waiting with bated breath to fulfil their own house dream, have to continue bide their time, as the distribution programme of the respective houses was cancelled again.

It may be noted here that distribution of TIDCO houses was scheduled on May 19 and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was supposed to distribute the houses to the eligible beneficiaries. However, the programme was shelved due to unknown reasons.

It should be reminded that the distribution programme was already called two times in the past and now it is the third time officially. Another thing is that Gudivada APTIDCO (AP Township and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited) housing colony is the only biggest housing colony compared to all urban areas of the State in terms of constructing thousands of houses at one place.

The government has constructed 8,912 houses here in the extent of 300 acres. Besides, another 6,700 individual houses are also being constructed next to the TIDCO houses. Owing to its significance, the authorities are planning to hand over the houses by the Chief Minister to the beneficiaries. But the attempts haven’t paid off.

Speaking to The Hans India, TIDCO House PO B Chinnodu informed that the CM programme was cancelled. He said that due to recent rains, the proposed meeting place was wet and not supporting for holding public meetings as it is totally filled with mud. He clarified that the new date will be in June.

Wait is not over TIDCO houses are being constructed under PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) and APTIDCO is PMAY’s nodal agency in the State. Under this scheme, three types of houses are being constructed in all urban areas to facilitate a domiciliation to the poor, who reside in urban areas concerned.

The Central government has sanctioned Rs 1.50 lakh for each house of all three types houses (300, 365 and 430 sq ft) as its share. The State government added its share for completing houses.

During TDP regime, construction of over 2.50 lakh TIDCO houses was started and 70 per cent houses were completed before 2019 elections. Gudivada TIDCO houses were also completed except amenities’ works at the TIDCO colony. The State government was taking just one rupee from the beneficiaries for completing all the 300 sq ft houses and spending Rs 5 lakh for each house to benefit the beneficiaries. Likewise, 365 sq ft houses were constructed at a cost of Rs 7.65 lakh, of which the State government bears Rs 2.65 lakh and bank loan was Rs 3.15 lakh. The beneficiary share for 365 sq ft house is Rs 25,000. The 430 sq ft double bedroom houses were constructed at a cost of Rs 8.65 lakh of which the State government’s share is Rs 2.90 lakh and bank loan is Rs 3.65 lakh and beneficiary share is Rs 50,000.

All the three types of houses were constructed in Gudivada TIDCO Colony. Despite the construction was over, the houses were not handed over to beneficiaries for the past four years. At last, seven months ago it was announced that houses will be handed over to beneficiaries. However, it was cancelled. Again, plans were made to present houses in February, which was futile. Now, for the third time, houses were scheduled to be distributed by the CM on May 19, which was also cancelled. In many urban areas, TIDCO houses were handed over by Ministers. But in Gudivada, the authorities are waiting for the CM, hence the programme is getting delayed.