HC allows govt to go ahead on housing for poor

VIJAYAWADA: The hurdles for the construction of houses for the poor under the Pedalandariki Illu, the flagship programme of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government, have been cleared.A division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday allowed the government to go ahead with the construction of houses. The bench also said observations made in the single judge’s order would not create any negative impact on the programme. The single judge bench had stayed the construction of houses under the scheme in October. 

The State government went for an appeal before the division bench. It plans to allot sites and construct houses for 30 lakh beneficiaries in the State under the scheme. The counsel on behalf of 128 petitioners, VSR Anjaneyulu, informed the court that they would like to withdraw their pleas. The petitioners told that they had filed the pleas only to get house sites and prayed the HC to give suitable orders. 

When the bench sought the opinion of the government on it, Advocate General S Sriram said they have no objection to the withdrawal of the petitions. The AG said the government does not have any objection in giving house site pattas to the petitioners. 

Sriram and Additional AG P Sudhakar Reddy also urged the bench to cancel the references made in the order of the single judge. At this juncture, Assistant Solicitor General N Harinath informed the court that the Centre had also filed a petition to implead in the case. The bench also allowed the Centre to withdraw the implead petition.  ASG Harinath brought it to the notice of the bench that the single judge made certain remarks against the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and such remarks might cause problems. The bench said the remarks made in the single judge’s order would not have any adverse impact on the housing scheme.