Fire victims shifted to 1BHK housing

The GHMC officials on Tuesday shifted the slum-dwellers who occupied the area marked for park in Kondapur to the poor people’s housing colony (termed ‘dignity housing’) in Ameenpura, and to transit housing in Keshav Nagar, a press statement said.

The evacuees were victims of recent blast and fire in the slum, in which 75 houses were burnt. As per instructions from Minister K. T. Rama Rao, they were provided accommodation in single-bedroom apartments, for which no beneficiary contribution is being charged.

This was the second instance of fire in the slum, both caused by illegal power lines drawn for electricity requirements.

There are 154 more huts in the area, occupied by migrants from Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, and other places of Telangana, who have been shifted to the transit housing project at Keshav Nagar. They will stay there till they are enumerated properly and given permanent housing by Ranga Reddy District Collector, the note said.

It has also cautioned against rumours that they were eligible for in-situ double bedroom housing scheme, and said it was not possible as the area was marked as park in layout.

Terming it a ‘text book operation’ with minimal inconvenience to rehabilitated persons, the note said the victims were moved safely in TSRTC buses, and provided with food, water and milk. Departments involved in the operation include Police, Fire, and Town planning wing of the West Zone.