JOIN US'Bangalored' gets new meaning in State's cities
The State has 29 urban development authorities and as many as 18 of them, including BDA, MUDA (Mysore) and BUDA (Belgaum), have not allotted any sites. However, urban development authorities in Shimoga, Ramanagar-Channapatna, Davangere, Hubli-Dharwad and Raichur are exceptions.
The government provided this information in the recently concluded legislature session to a question by MLC G Madhusudhan in the Council. Information pertaining to the BDA was not provided in the reply.
In the limits of the nine city corporations, only four urban development authorities have allotted sites - Hubli-Dharwad (550), Shimoga (1,163), Tumkur (389) and Davangere (507). The BDA last distributed sites in 2004-05.
The urban development authority in Shimoga has acquired 167.24 acres, in Ramanagar-Channapatna 7.36 acres, Raichur 65.17 acres and Mangalore 60 acres, for converting them into sites and distributing them. Though MUDA and Bijapur Urban Development Authority have acquired 76.39 acres and 469.30 acres respectively, they have not distributed sites.
Thousands of people across these cities have applied for residential sites to construct their dream homes. The authorities are spending a huge amount of money on staff salary and maintenance, official sources said.
As a result, private housing cooperative societies are mushrooming in all major cities and towns. Site aspirants are forced to depend on dubious societies and hundreds of people are being cheated by them, officials said.
Fraudulent housing societies
While replying to a question on fraudulent housing societies, Cooperation Minister Lakshman Savadi had informed the Assembly that 67 co-operative societies were facing allegations of irregularities and misappropriation of funds in the State.
Thirty-four housing societies are facing charges of misappropriation of funds. The government has superseded the management boards and appointed administrators to five societies.