Hyderabad: The Centre on Saturday clarified that on the Telangana state government had asked for only about 10,000 houses for the urban poor, and this had been accepted. The state had not been discriminated against, it said.
The clarification came after several TRS ministers, just ahead of the Warangal Lok Sabha byelection, claimed that the Centre had cleared only 10,890 houses for Telangana as against 1.93 lakh for AP under the Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana.
The Union ministry for housing and urban poverty alleviation stated that the Telangana state government in a letter (D.O.No.9927/UBS/2015 dated 17.11.2015 addressed to the joint secretary of the ministry) had forwarded 26 housing proposals for taking up 10,890 houses in 10 cities in the state, with a request to place them for consideration of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee which was to meet the next day, on November 18.
Though the proposals of the TS government were received late, they were included in the agenda for the meeting. The committee approved the proposals in toto.
Though there are four components under the PMAY in urban areas for taking up construction of affordable houses, the TS government had proposed 26 housing projects under one component, affordable housing in partnership, a spokesperson of the ministry said. The sanctioning committee had appreciated the efford made by the TS government to build affordable houses for the urban poor, he said.
He said states have just begun sending proposals under the PMAY for urban areas. Some states like Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu had proposed housing projects for construction of fewer houses.
Reacting to the clarification, BJP state chief G. Kishan Reddy asked the TS government to stop accusing the Centre of discrimination and start analysing what went wrong because of which the state officials did not forward proposals to take up houses on a mass scale.
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