Andhra Pradesh housing scheme: Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan requests PM Modi to probe by Central agencies
Dec 30, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 30 : Jana Sena Party (JSP) president Pawan Kalyan has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to initiate a probe by the central agencies such as the CBI or Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the alleged scandal in the distribution of house sites and construction of houses for the poor in Andhra Pradesh
In his letter to the PM, Pawan Kalyan said that a basic estimate, upon calculating the figures provided by the state government itself, pegged the financial misappropriation at nearly Rs 35,141 crore only in the purported acquisition of land for the project.
He further said that the swindling of money from the public exchequer was so high that even a ruling party (YSR Congress) MLA sought an investigation by the State Vigilance and Enforcement Department, but the government turned a blind eye.
"This is to bring to your kind notice the gigantic scandal, running into thousands of crores of rupees, perpetrated by the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-headed government in Andhra Pradesh in the name of distribution of house sites and construction of houses for the poor since June 2019...Land prices were artificially increased up many fold and only paltry amounts were paid to the land owners, while the ruling party leaders pocketed the 'extra' money," he said.
He also alleged that of the total estimated (land and housing) project cost of Rs 1,75,421 crore, the state government claims to have spent a whopping Rs 91,503 crore (till October 2023), which certainly looks dubious.
While making tall claims, the YSRCP government robbed the credit that was due to the Central Government for its flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in order to derive political mileage, he alleged.
Giving a detailed account of the housing scheme named Pedalandariki Illu, Kalyan said the scandal was of such an enormous magnitude that it should be investigated by the CBI or ED to ferret out the facts, bring the culprits to book and recover the money from them.
"The YSRC government in Andhra Pradesh launched the 'Pedalandariki Illu' (houses for all poor) scheme with the promise of constructing over 30 lakh houses across the state. As a first step, it sought to distribute house sites (one cent each in rural and 1.5 cents in urban) to as many as 29,51,858 (women) beneficiaries. In reality, however, only 21,87,985 women were eventually given house site pattas (titles). While 28,554.64 acres of government land was converted into house sites, another 25,374.66 acres was purportedly acquired from private persons," he added.
