Telugu Desam blocking house pattas to poor: CM Jagan

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday expressed concern that as many as 3,70,201 families could not get house sites due to the court litigations pursued by Telugu Desam and others.

He directed District Collectors and Joint Collectors to initiate measures for speedy resolution of the cases. Since the High Court vacation also ended, officials should focus on the cases. Similarly, focus should be laid on providing house sites within 90 days of receipt of applications from eligible beneficiaries.

The Chief Minister was interacting with Collectors and SPs on a wide range of issues including e-cropping, housing, Spandana grievances, and other welfare schemes. He noted that water and electricity facilities were provided in 4,120 housing colonies and directed the officials to provide them in the rest of colonies by the end of June.

The officials informed that 1.72 lakh new beneficiaries were identified, of whom 38,000 were receiving house sites in the current layouts, 9,794 would be accommodated in new layouts. Around 11,740 applications are yet to be processed. The Chief Minister instructed the officials to complete the construction of 15.6 lakh houses in the first phase.

The Chief Minister also emphasised on e-cropping and said that Collectors, Joint Collectors should monitor at least 10 per cent of the e-cropping and fix responsibility on officials for any failures. Farmers must be given receipts along with digital acknowledgement, listing out all e-crop details such as input subsidy and crop insurance. He stated that the farmers should not be facing any hassles because of the officials' mistakes. In case of any doubts, farmers should have the right to question the authorities, thus providing a physical receipt along with digital acknowledgement.

The Chief Minister said that quality seeds should be provided to the farmers through RBKs and directed the authorities to keep a check on black marketing and spurious seeds by conducting regular inspections. He said that even during the curfew, agricultural and allied activities must be taken up. Custom hiring centers and hubs must be set up as they could transform the agriculture sector in coming days, by providing machinery services at affordable prices to local farmers. Committees at the district level should be set up by the farmers themselves, where they can decide on the machinery they could rent including the price fixation. The Chief Minister said that in the first phase, 3,000 custom hiring centres would be launched in the RBKs on July 8, followed by the second phase in October and the third phase in January. He also directed the authorities to make available banking services at RBKs and told the Collectors to take it up the banks.