Telangana Chief Minister A.Revanth Reddy with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in New Delhi on Monday.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has requested the Centre to allot 2,500 acres of defence lands to the State government enabling it to take up highway expansion and other works.
The Telangana government requisitioned allotment of defence lands for taking up expansion of highways, flyovers and other basic amenities. The Chief Minister made the request when he called on Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Monday.
He reminded the Union Minister that since the Central institution, Research Centre Imarat was utilising 2,462 acres of the State government lands in Raviryal village on the city outskirts, the Centre should allot the defence lands facilitating infrastructure development works.
The Centre should positively consider the exchange of lands, he said. Mr. Revanth Reddy expressed concern that though a Sainik school was sanctioned near Warangal by the Centre, the previous government did not take any steps towards its construction. Since the permission accorded for construction of the Sainik school had expired, the Centre should ensure that the deadline was revised or fresh timelines issued for the same.
‘Sanction 2.70 lakh houses’
At a separate meeting with Union Housing and Urban Development Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the Chief Minister requested the Centre to sanction 2.70 lakh houses under the BLC model to Telangana during the current financial year. He explained to the Minister that the State government had decided to construct 25 lakh houses for the shelter-less poor of which 15 lakh houses were under the purview of urban development authority.
The State government had decided to take up the construction of these houses under the BLC model, he informed. He requested the Union Minister to enhance the quantum of funds for the prestigious Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) and assured that the State government would abide by the guidelines issued by the Centre in this direction.
The Centre had, so far, sanctioned 1.59 lakh houses under PMAY (Urban) and announced a grant of ₹2,390.58 crore. But the Centre had released ₹1,605.7 crore so far, he said urging the Union Minister to expedite the release of the pending amount. He sought extension of deadline for works under the Smart Cities Mission till June next year as they were not completed.
He briefed Mr. Khattar that works were taken up under Smart Cities Mission project in Warangal and Karimnagar. In all, 44 works taken up in Warangal were completed and 66 works involving an estimated ₹518 crore were in different stages of progress.
In Karimnagar, 25 works had been completed and another 22 works taken up with ₹287 crore were under sway. Since the Smart Cities Mission was scheduled for completion by June 30 this year, there was a need to extend the timeline by another year in public interest.