A week after they lost their huts and belongings in a fire at an illegal slum at Madhapur in Hyderabad, 75 slum-dwelling families on Tuesday walked into flats Telangana government has given them for free. The flats, 1BHK dwellings with an area of 375 sqft that cost Rs 4-5 lakh, have been allotted under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) Ameenapur housing scheme at Patancheru on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
“Telangana government decided that if they lost their huts in the fire, even if they were illegal, they should be given proper homes so that can live a dignified life. Since last Friday, when they lost everything, we have been providing them food and succour. Today we gave them what they may have never dreamed of — a house of their own,” said GHMC Zonal Commissioner (West) D Harichandana.
The 75 families who walked into their new homes Tuesday are Telangana natives. Significantly, 79 families, comprising labourers from UP, Bihar and Jharkhand who also lived in the gutted Madhapur slum, are also likely to get free flats.
Read more of this in a report by Sreenivas Janyala published in The Indian Express....
