It looks like YSRC president and Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s pet programme of distributing over 26 lakh house sites to the landless poor continues to face hurdles.
The programme, which was supposed to be launched on a grand scale on the occasion of Independence Day on August 15, has once again been postponed.
State deputy chief minister and revenue minister Dharmana Krishna Das announced that the house sites distribution programme was not being held on August 15, as scheduled earlier.
“We shall announce a fresh date at the earliest,” the Dy CM said.
The scheme – “Navaratnaalu-Pedalandiriki Illu,” has been facing several hurdles right from the beginning and it has been postponed several times since March.
First, it was proposed to launch the scheme on a grand scale on March 25 coinciding with Ugadi festival, but the scheme was deferred by state election commissioner Nimmagadda Prasad on the ground that there was model code of conduct in force for the local body elections.
Later, it was postponed to April 14, coinciding with Ambedkar birth anniversary, but because of Covid-19 pandemic, it was deferred again. Meanwhile, the acquisition of lands for the house sites was caught in a legal wrangle.
The high court stayed distribution of housing sites to over 54,000 landless poor in several villages of Amaravati capital region, following a petition by farmers of Amaravati.
It also cancelled the government’s order to take away over 6,000 acres of assigned lands and distribute them as house sites for the poor.
Subsequently, when the lockdown restrictions were removed, the programme was scheduled to be launched on July 8, coinciding with the birth anniversary of his father and former chief minister late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
However, the Jagan government could not stick to even this date because of legal issues as the experts warned him that it amounted to contempt of court if he went ahead with the programme.
Later, Jagan announced that the scheme would be formally launched on August 15, coinciding with the Independence Day, hoping that all the legal issues would be resolved by then. But the Supreme Court has not taken up the hearing as expected.
