Former minister and Kapu leader Mudragada Padmanabham has strongly opposed the One-Time-Settlement (OTS) scheme launched by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government for the regularisation of the houses constructed by the poor people in the government lands for several decades.
In a letter written to the chief minister, Mudragada asked him not to bring pressure on the poor people in the name of OTS.
He also demanded that the government should clear all the pending bills of the contractors for the works done during the previous Telugu Desam Party regime.
“When the present government cannot clear the bills for the works done during the previous regime, it doesn’t have the right to collect money from the people in the name of OTS for the houses constructed by the previous governments,” he argued.
Mudragada also found fault with the Jagan government for bringing pressure on the officials to collect the money from the poor in the form of OTS for the houses built by the previous governments.
He reminded that the poor people who had built the houses in the past were never asked to repay the loans and even the people’s representatives never insisted on them.
“I was also one among the MLAs, who told the people that there was no need to repay the money,” he said.
The Kapu leader recalled that it was he who had introduced the policy of constructing the houses for the poor wherever there was land in Prathipadu constituency. Even the collectors those days had sanctioned houses.
“Now, the poor are facing a lot of difficulty in paying money due to rising prices and Coronavirus situation. It is not correct to bring pressure on them,” he said.
The Kapu leader also criticised the government for handling the pay revision issue of the state government employees.
“It cannot create troubles for the employees, who are the backbone of the government,” he said.
