Khammam: Dalits threaten suicide over ‘govt not following procedures’ in allocating 2BHKs

Accuse government of trying to allot the houses to Congress workers without holding a gram sabha and without drawing lots

Khammam: Dalits of Acharlagudem in Nelakondapalli mandal are up against the Congress government for breaking the promise made by the previous BRS regime in allotting double-bedroom houses to eligible beneficiaries.

The dalits are accusing the government of trying to allot the houses to Congress workers without holding a gram sabha and without drawing lots. The affected families have been staging protests and threatening to end their lives by consuming pesticides if the houses are not allotted to them.

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According to the villagers, the BRS government during its second term in power constructed 18 double bedroom houses in the village. The houses were constructed on 14 vacant house plots, belonging to Dalits, sanctioned to them in 2003, with a promise that houses would be allotted to those whose plots were taken for the construction.

Speaking to Telangana Today, a resident, K Prashanth, an auto-rickshaw driver, informed that when the houses were ready and the process of allotment commenced, the Assembly election Model Code of Conduct came into effect, halting the process.

After Congress came to power, the local revenue officials sometime back prepared a list sans the plot owners eligible to get the double-bedroom houses. The list was prepared at the behest of a Congress leader P Veera Reddy, who was said to be a follower of Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and all the beneficiaries in list are Congress workers.

When the affected dalits took the matter to the notice of the local tahsildar 15 days ago, he assured them to look into the matter, and an enquiry was carried out. The official also said that the list was prepared following the suggestions of one of their own villagers, Prashanth said.

He alleged that the beneficiaries in the list were all Congress party workers, who own agricultural lands and are ineligible to get the houses. It was completely illegal to select the beneficiaries without organising a gram sabha. Officials concerned should look into the issue and take steps to allot the houses to eligible families, he demanded.

Prashanth further informed that in addition to the 14 families whose house plots were taken for the construction of double-bedroom houses, there are another 15 poor families eligible to get the houses. Houses should be allotted by lottery system by holding a gram sabha to do justice to the poor, he noted.

Even though the double-bedroom houses were constructed during the previous BRS regime, the Congress government painted the houses using Congress party flag colours and tried to allot them under the Indiramma Housing Scheme, he added.