Minister of State for Agriculture Krishna Byre Gowda said providing affordable housing to people who aspire to buy a house in the city by acquiring agricultural land at exorbitant prices is a big challenge.
After inaugurating a one-day conference on green homes here on Saturday, he said, “As the demand for houses increase, we invariably pollute our environment in our efforts to provide housing. We have to go for green homes as the technologies involved in constructing these houses are less polluting and focus on making them affordable.”
Expressing concern over rise in the vehicular traffic, Gowda said, “The biggest cause for concern is the need to widen roads to accommodate traffic, which will make tree-cutting inevitable. We should evolve measures to improve green cover while striving to provide housing.” He appealed to the BDA and private builders to focus on constructing green homes.
BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana said, “Providing drinking water to the increasing population is a daunting task. The government is spending vast sums of money to provide drinking water to urban areas and only 20 per cent of water drawn is being used for drinking purposes.” The remaining water is used for industrial purposes, he said.