The District Administration has decided to build 40 houses for transgenders and 20 houses for leprosy patients in Tiruchi district under the ‘Kalaignar Kanavu Illam’ scheme, one of the flagship programmes of the State government.

The District Rural Development Agency will implement the scheme. Under the scheme, which is aimed at helping the poor build concrete houses, the State government will construct one lakh new houses. It seeks to provide a financial assistance of ₹3.10 lakh for each house under the programme. It includes convergence with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and Swachh Bharath Mission-Gramin (SBM-G). It is proposed that 90 person days will be provided to each beneficary for house construction and 10 person days will be provided for construction of toilet under MGNREGS. The beneficiaries will be provided with a unit assistance of ₹12,000 under SBM-G.

Collector M. Pradeep Kumar told The Hindu that administrative sanction (AS) had been given for construction of 60 houses, with 40 of them for transgenders. The beneficiaries had been identified. It would help the transgenders, who were under abject poverty, to lead a dignified life. The minimum plinth area of each of the houses would be 360 sq.ft.

The official said that construction of houses would begin shortly and it was expected that they would be ready within six months.

S. Gangadharini, Project Director, DRDA, said that similar to houses for transgenders, 20 houses would be constructed for persons affected with leprosy. All of them would be constructed in the same place and each house would cost ₹3.10 lakh each.

The houses to be built for transgenders and leprosy patients were among the 4,000 houses sanctioned for Tiruchi district under ‘Kalaignar Kanavu Illam’ scheme. The process of identifying the remaining beneficiaries was under process. The houses would be built in all 14 panchayat unions in a phased manner.