In a humanitarian move, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) rehabilitated several slum-dwellers from their 'basti' in Kondapur and provided them 1BHK houses in Ameenpur and Keshav Nagar.
The GHMC move comes days after a massive fire accident burnt 75 huts in the area, and damaged a lot of property. Fortunately, no lives were lost in the incident, as several people had gone to work during the day.
As per instructions of Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Minister KT Rama Rao, the GHMC said that it began the rehabilitation early on Tuesday.
"The victims were to be provided with dignified housing, free of cost, and better living conditions which will be much safer than their current tarpaulin huts which are prone to fire hazards, as this was the second such fire accident in the past four months," the GHMC said in a press release.
"To prevent such accidents in the future and provide rehabilitation to the victims of the fire accident, the GHMC Commissioner allotted 1BHK houses in Ameenpura, to 75 families, free of cost," it added.
The GHMC said that there were a total of 154 huts in the area, with migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and other places of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The municipal body said that the remaining residents of the slum were accommodated in transit houses in Keshav Nagar, until they were enumerated properly by the local Tahsildar and sanctioned permanent housing by the Ranga Reddy District Collector.
As far as the demands of some residents to construct houses at the spot of the slum itself, the GHMC said, "We can't do that as it is marked as 'park land' in the layout and Supreme Court orders prohibit any construction on such lands."
The present value of the 1BHK houses of the GHMC comes up to Rs 5.2 lakh, inclusive of all amenities.
"The rehabilitation victims were moved safely in TSRTC buses to Keshav Nagar and Ameenpura with food for adults and milk packets for children. Also, food, water and basic necessities to enable them to settle are being taken care of," the GHMC said.