State built only 70K houses sanctioned by Centre

Karnataka made very poor progress in building houses for the poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (urban and rural), said the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Friday.

So far, only 70,583 houses were constructed in the state against the total 4.1 lakh houses sanctioned PMAY (both urban and rural), Union Minister for Housing and urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri informed the Rajya Sabha.

In his written reply to Congress member K C Ramamurthy, the minister said, of the total sanctioned houses to Karnataka, construction of 1.9 lakh houses has been started. Of these, work on 70,583 has been completed.

Though the Centre had sanctioned Rs 6,523 crore to the state to build houses, Rs 2,553 crore had been released. The remaining funds will be made available to the state only if construction progresses, the minister said.

With the gestation period for building houses being two years from the date of sanction, the Centre has advised the states to adhere to the time line.