Karnataka: Poor response to housing for poor

The state government's initiative to provide 1 lakh houses for economically weaker sections has received a poor response with not even half that number of applications received for the scheme.

BENGALURU: The state government's initiative to provide 1 lakh houses for economically weaker sections has received a poor response with not even half that number of applications received for the scheme. The deadline for submitting the applications expired on Thursday.

The Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corporation Ltd, the nodal agency for implementing the project, has decided to go ahead with laying the foundation stone for the first phase of the project by February-end. The 'Multi Storeyed Bengaluru Housing Scheme' project was announced in the 2017 state budget and the Cabinet had given its approval in September 2017. A one-year deadline has been fixed for its completion and handing over.  

According to highly placed sources, "A total of 47,848 applications were received by the end of day on Thursday." This is the third deadline set for the project. When the CM launched it on December 5 last year, January 5, 2018, was set as the deadline for applying for the scheme. It was extended to January 31 due to poor response and then again to February 15.The housing project is set to come up on 1,200 acres of government land. While the cost of a 30 sqmt house (two BHK) comes to `5.5 lakh, an SC and ST beneficiary needs to pay only `2 lakh while a non SC and ST beneficiary has to pay `2.7 lakh. The Ambedkar Vajpayee and the Pradhan Mantri Awaaz Yojana (Urban) schemes will subsidise for these homes.

"The project only accepts online applications. It is for the first time we are asking the EWS section to only submit online applications," a source said.  "The public only need to give us the numbers of various documents like Aadhaar, ration card, income certificate, caste certificate and bank account apart from proof of residing in Bengaluru for the last five years. There is no need to scan the documents and send it to us. So, this is less cumbersome than the regular application process. We will verify these numbers with other departments," the source added.

On reasons for the poor response, a top official said, "Not many have all the documents ready on hand. They are trying to obtain them from other departments and this is taking at least 20 days if they apply under Sakala scheme," he said.

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