Pedana legislator Jogi Ramesh took over as Minister of Housing at the Secretariat, near here, on Saturday.
He appended his first signatures on the files related to the construction of one lakh houses for the poor in Visakhapatnam and supply of 140 bags of cement to each beneficiary (up from 90 bags earlier).
Addressing the media later, Mr. Ramesh said he would do his best to fulfill the task of getting 31 lakh houses constructed in the name of women.
He pointed out that attempts were made to obstruct the construction of houses in Visakhapatnam, but the A.P. High Court had cleared the hurdle by dismissing the petitions filed by persons with vested interests.
Mr. Ramesh said the weaker sections’ housing scheme was being implemented on a saturation basis, irrespective of caste and political affiliations of the beneficiaries.
He thanked Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for giving him a berth in the Cabinet, and said he was grateful to former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy for mentoring him in politics.
Social Welfare Minister Meruga Nagarjuna; MLC Talasila Raghuram; MLAs V. Srinivasa Rao and D. Nageswara Rao; and Rakshana Nidhi and State Housing Corporation Managing Director Bharat Gupta were present.
