Talasani hits back at Revanth on double-bedroom houses, demands free homes for poor

BRS leader and former Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav on Friday challenged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to personally inspect the double-bedroom houses built during the BRS regime, asserting that 69,000 units were completed in Hyderabad.

Hyderabad: BRSLP deputy leader and former Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav on Friday hit back at Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s remarks on double-bedroom houses built during the BRS regime, challenging him to visit the houses with BRS leaders and see the beneficiaries living in them. He also demanded that the Congress government provide houses free of cost to the poor if it genuinely cared for them.

Speaking to mediapersons at Telangana Bhavan here, Srinivas Yadav said 69,000 double-bedroom houses were completed in Hyderabad during the previous BRS government. He said the then Governor had appreciated the houses, observing that even IAS and IPS officers’ quarters in Delhi were not comparable. He pointed out that 16,000 houses were constructed at Kollur alone, with all amenities of a gated community.

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The former Minister said the unit cost of each double-bedroom house constructed under the K Chandrashekhar Rao government was Rs 9.50 lakh, but was provided to beneficiaries free of cost. In contrast, he alleged that the current Congress government was asking beneficiaries of Indiramma houses to contribute Rs 6 lakh for construction and also pay another Rs 10,000 towards application fee. He alleged that in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, the then Congress government collected Rs 10,000 towards application fee, but did not provide houses.

He also questioned why the government had not specified the size of the houses to be constructed for each beneficiary, while seeking applications from them.

Srinivas Yadav accused the Revanth Reddy government of placing poor people’s lands and houses under the prohibited list through Section 22-A and ridiculed the Chief Minister’s assurance that he would restore the lands to their owners. 

“Who is Revanth Reddy to impose such restrictions and then assure to restore these properties to their owners?” he asked, alleging that commissions of 30 to 40 per cent were being collected for removing properties from the 22-A list.