Survey for housing schemes to begin next month: Ambareesh

A survey of individuals without own sites and houses in the State will be taken up next month by private agencies, in association with elected representatives in their respective areas, said Housing Minister Ambareesh, here, on Tuesday.

Speaking to media persons, he said, the survey would be completed in six months and Rs 20,000 crore would be needed to provide houses for all beneficiaries.

“We have got Rs 1,350 crore for providing houses to beneficiaries this year from the Centre and this is the biggest ever corpus released by the Centre for any State for housing. Earlier, we used to get only Rs 6 lakh for procurement of one acre of land for housing schemes. Now, it has been increased to Rs 50 lakh,” he said.

At least 10,000 houses will be earmarked for HIV/Aids victims, transgenders, widows, bonded labourers, civic workers, victims of atrocities and mob violence, he added.
The Centre has set a target to construct 3 lakh houses this year in the State, as Karnataka has secured the second place in the nation by constructing 3.17 lakh houses last year.

“This year, 1.61 lakh houses have already been constructed and the target will be achieved. We have also bagged an award for maintaining transparency in issuing funds for housing scheme beneficiaries,” Ambareesh said.

Walk out
Ambareesh walked out of a meeting of Councillors, held at his house, as they were divided into two groups and started to shout against each other in front of him, during the day.

Ambareesh had convened the meeting to discuss the issue of City Municipal Council president’s tenure. While a section of the Councillors argued that the incumbent president B Siddaraju be continued for the second half of the 30-month term, others opposed the same.

Meanwhile, an Independent Councillor started complaining about the high handedness of Ambareesh’s confidant and district Congress treasurer Amaravati Chandrasekhar. He was silenced by Chandrasekhar’s supporters.

When Congress Councillors took exception to Independents speaking during the meeting, the Independents pointed out that the Congress was the ruling party in the CMC because of them.

Ambareesh took Siddaraju out and discussed the issue with him personally. On his return he said, he had arrived at a solution and everybody should be agreeable to it. But, when both the factions started shouting again, he left the hall.