Hyderabad: Housing Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy announced that the Chenchus who have remained without any house would be provided about 10,000 housing units under Indiramma Indlu.

He said that nearly ten thousand Chenchu families have been identified under the saturation method in the four Integrated Tribal Development Agencies (ITDAs) of Utnoor, Bhadrachalam, Munnanur and Eturunagaram in the State and that they are being granted Indiramma houses. Minister said that a total of 9,395 houses will be sanctioned in Asifabad (3551), Boath (695), Khanapur (1802), Sirpur (311), Adilabad (1430), Bellampalli (326), Aswaraopet (105), Achampet (518), Mahabubnagar (153), Parigi (138) and Tandur (184).

The Minister reviewed the progress of Indiramma houses with the officials at the Secretariat on Tuesday. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that the State Governor Jishnu Dev Varma has suggested on many occasions that permanent houses should be built in tribal areas, and Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has also made many suggestions on many occasions for the development of tribal areas, especially the construction of their residential houses.

“The Chenchus are a tribe among the tribals who rely on forests. They make a living by hunting in the forests, collecting and selling forest produce. It is unimaginable that they will have a permanent home other than small huts, and they have not left those forest areas to live there. That is why the government has decided to allocate Indiramma houses in the same place where they live. No government has even thought about this in decades,” he said.