VIJAYAWADA: As the entire official machinery is busy combating the spread of coronavirus, the State government has postponed the distribution of house site pattas to poor beneficiaries to April 14 from March 25.
As part of ‘Pedalandariki Illa Sthalalu’ (house sites for all the poor), one of the flagship programmes of the YSRC government, it was initially decided to distribute house site pattas to around 27 lakh poor beneficiaries in the State on March 25 marking Telugu New Year Ugadi.
In the wake of coronavirus threat, it was decided to distribute house sites to the poor on April 14, the birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar, at a review meeting held by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday.
While the State government is committed to implementing the prestigious project of allotment of house sites to all the poor people, a few people are trying to politicise the event, besides creating hurdles by filing cases in the court.
The officials should ensure effective implementation of the scheme by overcoming all the hurdles, he said. Seeking details of the progress of the housing scheme, the Chief Minister directed the officials to complete the lottery system for allotment of the plots to beneficiaries at the earliest.
The photo of a beneficiary should be taken at the allotted site and geo-tagged, the Chief Minister said.
Prior to the government’s decision to postpone the house site distribution, State Election Commissioner N Ramesh Kumar had cleared the proposal for allotment of house sites to the poor on March 25.
Citing that the Supreme Court in its verdict permitted continuation of ongoing schemes in the aftermath of deferment of local body elections, the SEC said that as the State government had informed it as an ongoing scheme, approval was accorded to its implementation after considering the facts.