Protests erupt over Indiramma housing irregularities in Khammam

Villagers across Khammam district are protesting irregularities in the Indiramma housing scheme. Allegations include favouring ruling party workers over the poor, taking bribes, and political pressure on beneficiaries. CPI(M) and locals demand reforms and transparent selection through gram sabhas

Khammam: Despite tall claims by district Ministers on maintaining transparency in Indiramma houses beneficiaries’ selection, protests over irregularities have become a regular sight in erstwhile Khammam.

Protests in the Assembly constituencies represented by Ministers Bhatti Vikramarka, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, and Tummala Nageswara Rao have become increasingly common. The main allegation is that the houses are being allotted to ruling party workers while neglecting genuinely poor families.

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For instance, in the Deputy Chief Minister’s Madhira constituency, an aged Dalit woman took up a deeksha in front of the Madhira tahsildar office along with her family members recently. The woman, Elijala Shiromani of Dendukuru village, complained that Vikramarka had assured houses for single women, physically challenged persons, and poor families, but in practice, it was not happening.

Similarly, another woman, Shaik Meerabi of Khammampadu in Madhira mandal, alleged that a Congress leader, M Vijaya Babu, had collected Rs 10,000 from her, promising an Indiramma house, but no house was allotted.

CPI (M) leader Manda Saidulu demanded that the Indiramma committees selecting ineligible persons should be abolished. He said action must be taken against those who collected money by promising to provide houses to the poor.

Residents of the second ward of Wyra Municipality, Bathula Venkateswarlu, Manjula, Venkataramana, and others, staged a protest in front of the municipal office, complaining that houses were being allotted to those who already owned properties, land, and buildings instead of the deserving poor.

Speaking to Telangana Today, former Zilla Parishad chairman L Kamal Raju said that ruling party leaders in villages were telling beneficiaries that they would get Indiramma houses only if they joined the party. He said the Congress party, which boasts of ‘Praja Palana’, was in fact running a corrupt government. Indiramma houses should be sanctioned through gram sabhas only, he added.