Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy on Monday said his government aims to transform the union territory into a slum-free place.

Inaugurating the first phase of an initiative to hand over to landless beneficiaries free title deeds of the sites acquired by the Adi Dravidar Welfare and Scheduled Tribes Welfare Department at Manavely and Manapet, the Chief Minister said the administration was nearer to achieving the goal with 90% of slums already cleared and the inhabitants rehoused in better homes.

While earlier, free land titles were given for 400 square feet units, for the first time, free land titles were being provided for 800 square feet units, he said. He also opened a community hall at Velrampet.

The government has been aiming for maximal uplift while formulating and implementing welfare schemes, the Chief Minister said. He also pointed out that Puducherry pioneered a separate special component funding for Scheduled Castes years ago.

This year, the allocation had been increased by ₹150 crore to fund the welfare programmes of the Adi Dravidar Welfare and Tribal Welfare department. The government will build tenements in rural areas to ensure housing for all. A committee has been formed for that. A survey will be conducted soon and apartments will be built.

As an indicator of the government’s priority in education, Mr. Rangasamy pointed to the introduction of 10% reservation in medical education for NEET-qualifying students from government schools. It is planned to expand the horizontal reservation benefit across higher education avenues. Towards ensuring good education for children from the SC community, a sum of ₹65 crore had been allocated this year, he added.

Speaker R. Selvam, MLAs K.S.P. Ramesh, R. Senthilkumar, A. Muthamma, Commissioner-Secretary and A. Ilangovane, Department Director also participated.