The Chenchus are the weakest group among the primitive tribal tribes. Revanth Reddy-led Telangana government has decided to provide them shelter, as they have been living a nomadic life and have not seen their own home for generations.
State Housing Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy said that his government will make the dream of owning a home come true for 10,000 Chenchus in the state. He revealed that 10,000 Chenchu families have been identified for granting Indiramma houses under the jurisdiction of 4 Integrated Tribal Development Agencies (ITDAs) in the state.
Speaking at a review meeting held at the Secretariat on the implementation of the Indiramma House Scheme, Minister Ponguleti said that Indiramma houses are being granted to Chenchus in tribal areas as per the instructions of State Governor Jishnu Dev Verma and CM Revanth Reddy.
He said that it is unimaginable how Chenchus will have a proper house other than small huts in the forests. He explained that they are not living in forest areas and that is why the government has decided to allocate Indiramma houses in the places where they live.
The Minister said that if 3500 Indiramma houses have been sanctioned for each assembly segment this year, it has been decided to allocate an additional 500-700 houses for the tribal assembly segments under ITDA.
Minister Ponguleti said that the selection process for Indiramma house beneficiaries across the state has reached a point. He said that 20 percent of the houses have been taken up under the buffer in each assembly segment. Moreover, he said that special focus has been given to the construction of Indiramma houses in towns, especially in the GHMC area.
He said that the poor who continue to live in the slums in the main areas of the town prefer to stay there and are not interested in taking up houses built far from Hyderabad.
He recalled that when the previous government built double bedroom houses in Kollur and allotted them to the poor in Hyderabad, no one came forward to take them. Keeping that in mind, he said that he intends to build apartments in the G+3 format in the area where the poor live in huts.