Land acquisition for housing during YSRCP’s tenure in Andhra Pradesh will be probed, says Minister  

Minister for Housing Kolusu Parthasarathy said on Wednesday that the government would look into whether land acquisition for construction of houses during the YSRCP term was done as per the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Act, 2013 (LA Act), and take appropriate action against the officials concerned for violations, if any, committed by them.

Minister for Housing Kolusu Parthasarathy said on Wednesday that the government would look into whether land acquisition for construction of houses during the YSRCP term was done as per the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Act, 2013 (LA Act), and take appropriate action against the officials concerned for violations, if any, committed by them.

He alleged that the previous government had acquired burial grounds, hillslopes, etc. for housing and spent huge sums thereof. 

Addressing the media at the Secretariat at Velagapudi on June 19 (Wednesday), Mr. Parthasarathy said that the previous YSRCP government had got constructed only 6.80 lakh houses of the total 20.60 lakh sanctioned to Andhra Pradesh in the last five years and that the construction of 5 lakh houses had not commenced at all. 

Besides, the unit cost which was ₹2.50 lakh before 2019 had been reduced to ₹1.80 lakh. “These failures hit the poor people hard,” he said, while pointing out that bills for construction of 4.43 lakh houses during the TDP regime amounting to ₹933 crore were kept pending. 

“Further, the YSRCP government had diverted ₹2,913 crore of the ₹18,173 crore provided by the Central government for the construction of houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). Moreover, the State’s share of ₹1,306 crore was never paid. As a consequence, the government had to pay a penalty of ₹28 crore for its negligence,” said the Minister. 

Mr. Parthasarathy said the YSRCP government had undertaken the construction of houses in 11,782 layouts, but basic amenities were created that too deficiently in only 7,500 layouts at a cost of ₹897 crore, of which bills amounting to ₹246 crore were paid. The TIDCO houses remained unallotted to the beneficiaries though 90% of their construction was completed between 2014 and 2019, he said.