Hyderabad: Housing Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy offered his expertise in real estate business for building affordable Indiramma houses for the poor. The minister asked the engineers to seek his suggestions in case of any difficulty in the construction of Indiramma houses.

While presenting certificates to the trained engineers at the NAAC (National Academy of Construction) on Saturday, the Minister said that with his experience in the construction sector, he has provided suggestions to the authorities to build houses with low cost and quality in the past. He urged young engineers to also focus on these issues and create awareness among the beneficiaries.

A total of 350 assistant engineers who were recruited in outsourcing in the Housing Corporation received training for six days at the NACC.

The Minister appealed to the assistant engineers to work in accordance with the government’s ideas, work with honesty and integrity without any scope for corruption and become partners in the Indiramma Housing Scheme, which is fulfilling the long-standing desire of the poor.

“It is a matter of joy that 45 per cent of the 350 engineers selected were women. Overcoming all the hassles, the selection was made on the merit basis,” he underlined.

Ponguleti said that there is no scheme in any state in the country where a single beneficiary is given Rs 5 lakh under any welfare scheme. He said that all the states are making do with the funds given by the Centre in housing schemes as well, but keeping in mind the welfare of the poor in Telangana state, the Indiramma government has formulated a scheme so that the beneficiaries themselves can build houses of not less than 400 square feet with Rs 5 lakh.

“We are utilising the latest technology to ensure that there is no room for any middlemen to get involved in the payments of Indiramma houses. We are making payments every Monday to the beneficiaries who have completed the construction at different stages,” Minister added.