Telangana to seek Central assistance for Indiramma houses construction, says Chief Minister

Telangana Government to seek Central assistance for Indiramma houses construction. It prioritizes marginalized communities to allot the houses, using technology for efficient implementation.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has announced that the Telangana Government will seek the Central Government’s assistance for the construction of Indiramma houses to fulfil the Congress promise of providing houses to all shelterless families.

The government has taken up construction of 3,500 houses each in the 119 assembly constituencies totalling to 4.5 lakh houses in the first phase and has decided to provide financial assistance of ₹5 lakh in four instalments for construction of each house to eligible beneficiaries who own piece of land. It has been decided to select the poorest of poor for the scheme prioritising dalits, tribals, persons with disabilities, agricultural labour, sanitation workers and transgenders.

“Priority has been accorded to these sections as this will not give scope for political interference in the allocation of houses,” the Chief Minister said. He was speaking after launching the mobile app for verifying the applications for houses submitted by the poor at the field level to verify their claims, in Hyderabad on Thursday (December 5, 2024).

Mr. Revanth Reddy said the Government was using technology including artificial intelligence to monitor construction of houses under Indiramma housing scheme as “we are firm against giving scope for any lapses in the implementation of the scheme”.

The Government had decided to enhance the cost per house to ₹5 lakh from ₹1.25 lakh sanctioned in the government headed by late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy owning to the increased costs of material, labour and other components. “We have also relieved 7,000 families which took loans for construction of Indiramma houses in the past from the debt burden,” he said.

This was in addition to ₹195 crore released for speedy completion of the incomplete two bedroom houses launched by the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government. While the Congress Governments distributed 25.04 lakh houses under Indiramma scheme in the past, the previous BRS Government had sanctioned 1.52 lakh 2BHK houses of which around 65,000 had been completed.

Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said the Government took up the programme in spite of the financial constraints it was facing on account of the huge debt burden imposed by the previous BRS regime. He said the first phase of the scheme at ₹5 lakh a house would require ₹22,500 crore but the Government was committed to raise resources for fulfilling its commitment. “We are observing rigorous fiscal discipline to meet our commitments,” he said. Eligible families which could construct additional rooms would be permitted to do so and rules had been liberalised in this direction.