The ambitious programme of the YSR Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh for distribution of 25 lakh house site pattas for the landless poor on March 25 coinciding with Ugadi festival has been put off.
Instructions to this effect have been given by State Election Commissioner N Ramesh Kumar.
He ordered that the house sites distribution programme should be postponed and the officials should not make any arrangements in this regard, in the wake of the model code of conduct being in force for the local body and municipal elections.
“No programme shall be taken up that would influence the voters in the wake of enforcement of model code of conduct. The orders should be implemented invariably without any violations,” Ramesh Kumar ordered.
He warned of action against the officials if they called for tenders with regard to land distribution and issuance of tokens for allotment of plots. They should not participate in the selection of beneficiaries and identification of plots.
“The orders will come into immediate effect,” he said.
The Jagan Mohan Reddy government has been taking steps to identify house-sites district-wise and develop the identified plots. Special focus was laid on the backward districts.
The officials have been busy in identifying the problems in the acquisition of land in each district and taking them up on the spot.
The collectors and the entire district machinery had been on the job of removing the financial constraints in land acquisition for the programme.
Now, all these activities have come to a halt due to model code of conduct.
