VIJAYAWADA: Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Ponguru Narayana stated that the government treasury is empty and accused the YSRC government of diverting the tax revenue paid by the people. He along with local MLA Shravan Kumar, Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) Commissioner Katmaneni Bhaskar, and TIDCO MD Sai Kant Verma, inspected TIDCO houses in Mandham and Dondapadu villages on Monday.
The minister highlighted that between 2014 and 2019, permission was granted for 7,01,481 houses from the Central government with the aim of building high-quality homes for the poor. Of these, 5,00,000 were given administrative approval for construction through TIDCO. He stated that tenders were initially called for 4,54,704 houses in areas with available space, and collectors were instructed to select spaces for the remaining houses.
According to the minister, construction had commenced on 3,13,832 houses, with 77,371 houses nearing completion (90 to 100 per cent), while another 64,245 houses were 50 to 75 per cent complete, and 49,325 houses were 25 to 50 per cent complete. Additionally, 1,22,000 houses were completed between 10 to 25 per cent.
He criticised the YSRC government for reducing the total number of houses to 2,62,216. He emphasised that TIDCO houses, including windows and doors, were planned to be built with high quality and designed with underground drainage, shopping complexes, Anganwadi schools, and community halls. He accused the YSRC government, which came to power in 2019, of completely damaging this scheme.
He stated the previous government used only Rs 240 crore out of the Rs 5,350 crore provided by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and had failed to utilise the funds properly. Additionally, he noted that Rs 550 crore received from the 15th Finance Commission last financial year could have been increased to Rs 1,100 crore if utilisation certificates (UCs) had been submitted on time, but this did not happen due to government negligence.