Hyderabad: Applications for Indiramma houses within the Greater Hyderabad limits flooded the face-to-face programme conducted by BC welfare and city in charge minister, Ponnam Prabhakar, at the Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday. A majority of the people who came to the programme were from the state capital, with a few from neighbouring districts. The people urged Ponnam to sanction Indiramma houses and requested that he ask the chief minister to increase the quota of Indiramma houses for the poor in the city. The state govt sanctioned 3,500 Indiramma houses for each of the 119 assembly constituencies in the state in the first phase of the programme. Speaking to TOI, Ponnam Prabhakar said there was a lot of demand for housing in Greater Hyderabad and the Congress govt was committed to ensuring that every eligible poor family gets an Indiramma house in a phased manner. “Lakhs of applications were received during the Praja Palana programme for the Indiramma housing scheme, but field-level inquiries and document verification by the officials revealed that only 18,000 families have house sites (land). The govt will discuss and come up with a solution soon,” he said. The minister received over 100 petitions, in addition to grievances and requests submitted orally to him during the face-to-face programme, which was revived after a few months. The programme was stopped midway without any reasons given, but sources in Gandhi Bhavan said it was due to MLC elections and other factors. It has been revived now after TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud spoke to the chief minister and also AICC in charge Meenakshi Natarajan. The AICC in charge also participated briefly in the face-to-face session and interacted with the people about the problems they were facing in getting their grievances addressed by the officials. Applications for jobs, loans for self-employment schemes, resolutions to land encroachments and disputes, new ration cards, inclusion of names on existing cards, allocation of pending allotment of 2-BHK houses, inclusion of names in the free electricity scheme, and other welfare programmes were submitted to the minister.A delegation of the Telangana Udyama Karula Forum told TOI that they urged Ponnam Prabhakar to remind the TPCC president and the CM about the Congress election manifesto, which promised a house site and a monthly pension to those who fought for statehood. They urged Ponnam to speak to the CM and ensure that a committee is constituted to identify all such Udyama Karulu. “It is not only about the monthly honorarium and house site, but mainly about acknowledgement that we fought and achieved statehood. The govt should give us a memento or certificate, which we will display in our houses and offices as a mark of pride and self-respect that we were at the forefront of the statehood agitation,” said forum leader Taduri Gagan Kumar.
