HYDERABAD: A Division Bench of the Telangana High Court comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice A Rajashekar Reddy on Wednesday issued notices to the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary (Housing), vice chairman and managing director, housing corporation, the GHMC Commissioner and all 33 District Collectors in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed to allocate completed double bedroom houses to beneficiaries in all 33 Districts.
The PIL, filed by former BJP MLA Nallu Indrasena Reddy, seeks a direction to the Telangana government to allocate the completed double bedroom houses to beneficiaries. While hearing the PIL, the Division Bench directed concerned officials to inform the court within four weeks as to why 1 lakh double bedroom houses, which were ready for occupation, had not yet been allocated to eligible beneficiaries since one year, and directed them to furnish reasons for the delay.
The petitioner’s counsel Srujan Kumar Reddy informed the court that the respective District Collectors were not allotting the houses due to political pressures, and this delay was causing serious damage to the houses as miscreants were resorting to theft of doors, windows, switch boards, kitchen accessories and bathroom fittings.
Further, the houses have become a haven for anti-social elements to carry on their activities, said the petitioner. Reddy added that the money spent on construction of the houses was tax payers’ money and the government should not waste it by not allotting the houses. After hearing the counsel, the Division Bench issued notices to respondent authorities asking them to file their counters and adjourned the matter to the first week of January.