The BJP, which is eyeing on forthcoming Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) polls, is copying Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s flagship programme double-bedroom houses to the weaker sections. The party has demanded the Andhra Pradesh government to provide double-bedroom houses to the weaker sections instead of one-bedroom houses, at least in GVMC limits.
It may be recalled that the two-bedroom houses’ assurance, the TRS party’s most attractive election promise, gave a big boost to the party in Telangana. For the first time in the country, the TRS with the two-bedroom houses’ assurance to the weaker sections registered great response from the people.
Keeping in view of the urban areas, the BJP is also upping the ante for sanction of two-bedroom houses to the weaker sections. After formation of BJP in 1980, for the first time it had won mayor post in the country at Visakhapatnam only. NSN Reddy was the first city mayor. However, later the party fails to makes its mark in the city corporation.
As Narendra Modi government has been providing funds to the states under “Housing for All” scheme, BJP legislature party leader P Vishnukumar Raju said that there will not be extra expenditure for creation of one more bedroom to the existing single-bedroom house. According to the present rules, there is one ration card for one family. The government considers the entire family as one unit. How a family can stay in a single bedroom, he asked.
If the expenditure on interior expenditure is eliminated, he said two-bedroom houses are possible. He urged the state government to seriously look into the issue. He also urged chief secretary S P Tucker to take initiative on the two-bedroom houses. “I met the officials and explained the need of the two-bedroom houses to the weaker sections,” he added.