Hyderabad: The Telangana government aimed to provide homes to poor families in their existing localities under the Indiramma Houses scheme, Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy said. He said the policy was intended to protect their dignity, self-respect and access to livelihoods.
The Revenue and Housing Minister explained the government’s housing policy while responding to questions from MLAs in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
Ponguleti said the government would not shift poor families 30 to 40 kilometres away from places where they earned their livelihoods. Instead, houses would be provided in the localities where beneficiaries lived.
He said the government treated each Assembly constituency as a unit while sanctioning houses. The policy also covered areas where land prices ranged between Rs 150 crore and Rs 200 crore per acre.
Beneficiary selection was being conducted transparently, according to the Minister. Officials were carrying out door-to-door physical verification of beneficiaries chosen through the draw.
Moreover, Ponguleti said officials would remove names if they found beneficiaries belonging to other constituencies on a constituency’s list.
Indiramma Houses scheme gets over Rs 40,000 crore plan
The Telangana government was providing Rs 5 lakh in financial assistance for constructing each house. Ponguleti said no comparable State or Central scheme provided such assistance free of cost.
Responding to suggestions that Rs 5 lakh might be insufficient, the Minister said the government would positively consider increasing the assistance.
Ponguleti said the first phase covered 4.5 lakh houses at an estimated cost of Rs 22,500 crore. Meanwhile, the second phase covered another 2.5 lakh houses requiring Rs 11,000 crore.
In addition, the government planned another one lakh houses in urban areas at an estimated cost of Rs 5,500 crore. Overall, Telangana would spend more than Rs 40,000 crore on nearly eight lakh houses across the two phases, the Minister said.
The government also cleared around 3,200 houses that had remained stalled despite receiving earlier approvals. Ponguleti said minor construction-related issues had prevented progress on those houses.
However, the government had now cleared those cases. The Minister said payments to all eligible beneficiaries of the 3,200 houses would be made by the end of the week.