PIL flags ‘Rs 1 lakh bribe’ claims in Indiramma housing

Hyderabad: Telangana high court on Friday sought the state govt's response to a public interest litigation (PIL) alleging large-scale fraud and irregularities in the Indiramma housing, a welfare scheme meant to provide houses to the underprivileged.The court converted a letter written by Thippala Saibhavani, a resident of Mulugu district, into a PIL. The petitioner sought a high-level probe by either the CBI or the Enforcement Directorate into the alleged irregularities.
Hearing the matter, a bench of Justices P Sam Koshy and Narsing Rao Nandikonda directed the state counsel to explain the govt's stand and adjourned the case to March 30 for further hearing. In her petition, Saibhavani, a widow from Vankatapuram village in Mulugu, alleged that she had applied for a house under the scheme through the Praja Palana grievance forum, submitting all required documents as she did not have a permanent residence. However, she alleged that houses were allotted only to those who paid officials up to ₹1 lakh. She further alleged that officials at the mandal and village levels bypassed eligible applicants and instead extended the housing benefit to ineligible persons by allegedly creating fake documents and photographs. The petitioner also claimed that the Indiramma committees responsible for overseeing the allotments deliberately removed the names of applicants linked to opposition parties. She stated that she too was associated with one of the opposition parties. ‘Beneficiaries cheated'According to the petition, officials who allegedly collected money from applicants did not allot houses even to those who paid them, thereby cheating the beneficiaries.The petitioner further alleged that the money collected from applicants was diverted into private, unauthorised microfinance schemes, where it was used to lend funds at interest rates of up to 10%.