Telangana’s government will prioritise 59,000 hut dwellers for houses under the second phase of the Indiramma housing scheme, Housing Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy told the state Assembly on Thursday. He also said the government would avoid relocating poor families 30 to 40 km away from their sources of livelihood.
Responding to questions from members including Manohar Reddy, Rajagopal Reddy, Medipally Satyam, Akbaruddin Owaisi and Venkatrami Reddy, Ponguleti said houses were being sanctioned by treating each Assembly constituency as a separate unit. The approach, he said, was intended to provide housing in locations that preserve the dignity and livelihood connections of eligible families, including in areas where land values range from ₹150 crore to ₹200 crore an acre.
The minister said officials were physically verifying the beneficiaries selected through the draw by visiting their homes. If people belonging to constituencies other than the one for which they were selected were found on the list, their names would be removed, he said. Ponguleti described the process as transparent and said houses were being sanctioned on the basis of eligibility.
The second phase includes 2.5 lakh houses, for which the minister estimated an expenditure of about ₹11,000 crore. The first phase covers 4.5 lakh houses and is expected to require approximately ₹22,500 crore, while another one lakh houses in urban areas are estimated to cost about ₹5,500 crore. Together, the two phases cover around eight lakh houses and require the government to bear more than ₹40,000 crore, according to the minister.
Ponguleti said the government was providing ₹5 lakh in free financial assistance for construction under the scheme. He said several legislators had argued that the amount was insufficient and that the government would examine the request positively. The minister also said there was no precedent for a state or the Union government providing ₹5 lakh in free assistance for house construction, as claimed during his Assembly response.
Around 3,200 houses approved during the first phase but later stalled because of minor construction deficiencies had been regularised and cleared, Ponguleti said. Payments to the beneficiaries of those houses were expected to be released by the end of the week.
The minister said the government was identifying land earmarked for poor families during the period of united Andhra Pradesh, along with land that had been acquired but not allotted. District collectors had been instructed to ensure that these sites were allotted to eligible beneficiaries in their respective constituencies within a month, he said.
