GHMC bags PM’s award for housing programme

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has bagged the ‘Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration’ for implementing the ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana’.

The award will be presented to Municipal Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday on the ‘Civil Services Day’, according to the communication received by Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi on Thursday.

Information Technology & Municipal Administration Minister K.T. Rama Rao congratulated the GHMC in a tweet and advised the civic body “not to rest on laurels as there was a lot to do”. Mr. Reddy expressed his happiness for the award and thanked Chief Minister K. Chandrsekhar Rao and others for helping him plan and execute one lakh dwelling units.

Telangana flagship programme of 2BHK ‘Dignity Housing’ programme dovetailing with the Central Government’s Housing Programme of Pradhan Manthri Awas Yojana – Housing For All, took off due to coordination and support of various departments without which the GHMC would not have managed to mobilise 600 acres, he said.

Housing construction was underway in 109 locations in and around the capital for construction of 89,516 dwelling units. A dignity house of 560 sft with two-bedrooms, hall, kitchen and two toilets costs ₹7 lakh each but actual value will be much more, said the Commissioner, in a press release.

Mr. Reddy pointed out that the housing construction under the current programme would exceed all the units constructed so far under all government schemes put together during past several decades. It is because the lone slum improvement project taken up about 10 years ago by name Keshavanagar under the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), had not moved an inch forward despite provision for transit housing.

Effective counselling and transparent method helped in programme becoming a success, he claimed.