Telangana HC allows BJP protest over housing scheme

Hyderabad: Telangana High Court on Monday allowed BJP to stage dharna in Hyderabad over double bedroom housing scheme in Hyderabad on Tuesday after the police denied permission for the same.

The BJP approached the High Court after the city police rejected its request for permission to stage a sit-in at Indira Park on Tuesday.

The saffron party had called for the day-long protest, demanding distribution of double bedroom houses among beneficiaries.

BJP general secretary D. Pradeep Kumar moved lunch motion petition in the High Court after the police refused to give permission. Justice C. V. Bhaskar Reddy, who took up the hearing, wanted to know why police denied permission for the protest at dharna chowk.

The counsel from the city police informed the court that since construction of a flyover was on near Indira Park, the protest may lead to traffic and law and order problems. However, the petitioner’s counsel submitted to the court that even the ruling party was recently allowed to organise a protest at the sample venue.

The judge asked the BJP to give a written undertaking to the police that not more than 500 people will participate in the dharna and that no rally will be taken out. The party was also asked to submit a list of leaders who will participate in the dharna.

Meanwhile, the BJP on Monday organised protests in all districts over the issue. Party MPs and senior leaders led dharnas at the offices of district collectors.

BJP national vice-president D. K. Aruna, who led the protest in Jogulamba Gadwal district, said that after failing to keep his word, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has lost the right to seek votes. She demanded that the government immediately distribute the double bedroom houses.

Nizamabad MP D. Arvind led the protest in Nizamabad. The protest in Kamareddy was led by BJP MLA Raghunandan Rao.

Another party MLA and former minister Eatala Rajender led the protest at Hanamkonda district collectorate. He demanded that the government immediately allot 2BHK houses to beneficiaries.

The BJP has alleged that the BRS government is indulging in large-scale corruption and diversion of funds released by the Centre and the funding agencies for the construction of double bedroom houses.

The BJP leaders say that the state government received Rs 4,400 crore under Prime Minister Awas Yojana in 2015 to build six lakh houses but only one lakh houses were built.

They claim that the government built only 1.27 lakh houses for the poor in the last nine years. Only 23,000 of these houses were handed over while 70,000 were in various stages of construction. They alleged that not a single house was built in at least 10 districts.