Telangana will prioritise 59,000 hut-dwelling families in the second phase of the Indiramma housing scheme, Housing Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy told the state Assembly, while saying the government would avoid relocating poor households far from their sources of livelihood.
Responding to questions from legislators, Ponguleti said houses under the scheme were being sanctioned by treating each Assembly constituency as a unit. The approach, he said, was intended to ensure that eligible families received homes within or near their existing communities, rather than being shifted 30 to 40 kilometres away.
The minister said the state was targeting about eight lakh houses across the two phases of the programme. According to the figures presented in the Assembly, around ₹22,500 crore would be required for 4.5 lakh houses sanctioned in the first phase. The second phase, covering 2.5 lakh houses, would require about ₹11,000 crore, while another ₹5,500 crore would be needed for one lakh houses in urban areas.
The total government expenditure for the two phases would therefore exceed ₹40,000 crore, Ponguleti said. The state is providing financial assistance of ₹5 lakh per beneficiary for house construction under the scheme. The minister said some legislators had argued that the amount was insufficient and that the government would examine the issue.
Ponguleti also said beneficiary selection was being carried out through a transparent process. Officials were physically visiting the homes of beneficiaries selected through the draw to verify their eligibility. If applicants from constituencies other than the one for which they had been selected were identified, their names would be removed from the list, he said.
The minister said the current government was allocating houses on the basis of eligibility rather than political considerations. He also said the state was identifying government land earmarked for poor families during the period of united Andhra Pradesh, as well as land that had been acquired but remained unallocated.
District collectors have been instructed to ensure that such sites are allotted to eligible beneficiaries in their respective constituencies within a month, according to the minister’s statement. The land-identification process is expected to support the housing programme in areas where land prices have made construction difficult. Ponguleti referred to locations where an acre was valued at between ₹150 crore and ₹200 crore.
The minister further said about 3,200 houses approved during the first phase had stalled because of minor construction deficiencies. These cases had been regularised and cleared, with payments to the beneficiaries expected to be released by the end of the week, he said.
