60,000 SC/STs apply for housing units in WG

Eluru: About 60,000 families belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have submitted their applications to the Housing Corporation seeking housing units in West Godavari district. This was disclosed by project director of the corporation G Satyanarayana here on Wednesday. He reviewed construction of houses to the poor at Collectorate here. He directed the housing officials to tour each and every hamlet of the district as part of verification of the applications. The officials should identify the families eligible for grant of new house. Basing on the survey details, the corporation would evolve a comprehensive plan to provide permanent housing to all the beneficiaries within next two years, he said. Stating that the State government had effected a hike in the value of SC/ST housing units, Satyanarayana said that the measure was part of the newly-announced SC/ST Sub-Plan. While the SC housing unit would get Rs one lakh, each house for STs would be given Rs 1.05 lakh funding. As the government revised the value of the housing unit from the previous Rs 70,000 per unit, the officials should try to improve the quality standards of the housing units to be constructed under the plan, he said. Informing that the State government had decided to provide housing unit to all the poor under three phases of Indiramma scheme in the district, Satyanarayana alerted the officials to check for duplication in delivering the benefits. He directed the officials to verify whether any of the applicants had already benefitted by the government welfare schemes. They should also crosscheck for the presence of benefited families at the allotted houses. He said the corporation was committed to help the poor realise the dream of owning a house as part of Indiramma housing scheme. He directed the officials to gather village-wise data of the poor living in huts. The corporation would construct houses for all the eligible in a phased manner, he said. The project director hinted at sanction of 30,000 housing units for the poor in the current financial year. The officials should prepare the list of eligible poor in advance and post it online. This preparedness would help in sanction and construction of housing units on a war-footing, he said.