Karnataka: They get their dream houses after 14 yrs!

Kalaburagi: Usually, it takes only a few months to construct houses under various government schemes. Believe it or not, it took 14 years to complete work on houses under such schemes in Kalaburagi city.

Finally on Thursday, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha M. Malikarjun Kharge and district in-charge minister Dr Sharanprakash Patil presented title deeds of 594 houses built at Kesaratagi Green City on the outskirts of Kalaburagi at a cost of Rs 5.84 crore, to the beneficiaries. The project was launched in 2002 when S.M. Krishna was Chief Minister and Kalaburagi North MLA Qamar-ul-Islam was Minister for Housing.  However, work on the project got delayed as the beneficiaries failed to pay their share of construction cost.  Earlier, they were supposed to pay 10 per cent of the cost. But when the BJP came to power, the beneficiaries’ contribution was increased to 20 per cent. Though the beneficiaries did not pay their share, the authorities completed work on the houses using funds from other sources.

The problem of beneficiaries’ contribution cropped again four years ago when work on the houses was completed. The problem was resolved after Dr Patil became district in-charge minister in 2016. He pressured the banks to lend loans to the beneficiaries to pay their share of construction cost. “As a result, 230 autorickshaw drivers got loans to pay their share of construction cost,” Kalaburagi Mahanagara Palike Commissioner P. Sunilkumar told DC. In all, the project envisages construction of 1,574 houses. Of them, 500 had been earmarked for autorickshaw drivers, he said. Mr Kharge said that as per a survey, still 8,000 people had no sites and houses in the city. “The DC should identify land for constructing houses for these people,” he said and emphasised the need to complete work on the remaining houses at the earliest.