Andhra Pradesh govt completes construction of 40 lakh houses for poor

HYDERABAD: The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh which has embarked upon a plan to make the state hut-free has completed construction of 40.32 lakh houses under various schemes meant for the poor over the last eight years, state housing minister said today.

"The government is moving ahead with the aim of making the state hut-free. We have so far completed 40.32 lakh houses under different schemes while 10.87 lakh houses are under different stages of construction at present," Housing Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters here.

He was speaking as part of the ' Prajahitham' (public interest) programme of the Kiran Kumar Reddy government under which progress report of various departments is released to the media.

The state budget for housing is Rs 2,300 crore while the Centre has provided Rs 992 crore for constructing around 5.25 lakh houses every year.

The government is making available Rs 429 crore for the purpose of providing basic infrastructure in 7,312 housing colonies.

The minister said the department has taken various initiatives, after he assumed office, like correcting errors in beneficiaries details at the district level itself. Earlier, any such corrections had to be done in Hyderabad.

The state housing corporation is introducing latest technologies to ensure transparency and for reducing any fraudulent practices through SMS and geo-tagging of houses, Reddy said.