Internal survey reveals Rs 236 crore scam in previous housing schemes
Hyderabad: While the Telangana government is working out the modalities to fulfil its poll promise of providing double bedroom flats to the poor, a random internal survey of the housing scheme in 593 villages has revealed a Rs 236 crore scam.
Over 90,000 houses were said to have been built in these villages, but the survey revealed that many of the houses did not exist, though the money was paid by the government. There were also cases of multiple bills being drawn for the same house.
With many complaints of irregularities in the housing schemes, an inquiry was launched by the previous government in 593 villages in nine districts of Telangana. A notice was issued to reclaim the money under the Recovery Act, following which over Rs 2.87 crore was recovered. The government also suspended over 150 officials and terminated over 68 members of departments concerned with the scheme.
Though the government was considering similar surveys in other villages, they were not done. There are over 9,000 villages in the state.
“If the survey is taken up in all villages in the state, the scam would run into thousands of crores,” said an insider of the Telangana Housing Corporation.
Meanwhile, there were similiar revelations in the social audit of the Indiramma housing schemes that were taken up in the Parakala mandal of Varkal village in Warangal district.
On the direction of the managing director of the Housing Corporation, an audit by the Social Audit Accountability and Transparency team was launched from December 9 to 15, 2013.
The government had released a subsidy of Rs 3,09,37874 for construction of 952 pucca houses. The social audit team found irregularities to the tune of Rs 1,32,48,123.
Of the 952 houses, irregularities were found in the construction of 500 houses. At the ground level, the construction of houses had not yet taken off. In some cases, records stated that the beneficiaries had received the money disbursed by the government but in reality it had not been deposited in their accounts.
The report also stated that over 105 old houses were shown as newly constructed and Rs 42.024 lakh was paid. Additionally, Rs 22.20 lakh was paid for 69 houses which did not even exist. Several houses were taken on single ration cards. Over 11 members gave their houses on rent while four applicants sold theirs.
