BENGALURU: Eyeing the urban poor vote bank in Bengaluru, the Siddaramaiah government is gearing up to enable the weaker sections realise their dream to have a home of their own in the city. The state cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal for building one lakh houses for the weaker sections in the city on government lands, which were cleared of encroachments in recent years.
Briefing the reporters, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra said, “Multi-storied (ground plus three) housing complexes will be built on encroachment-evicted lands. We have already identified 468 acres of land for the purpose to start with. We have about 4,500 acres which were encroached upon earlier.”
The beneficiaries will have to pay `1 lakh as their contribution for owning the house, while the government will bear the remaining cost. The project is estimated to cost `6,000cr and will be implemented through Karnataka Housing Board, Karnataka Slum Development Board and Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation.
The houses to be constructed under the modern pre-fabrication technology will be ready within 6 months after starting the work, Jayachandra said. Guidelines would be formulated to ensure that the economically weaker localities (Kannadigas) get the lion share of it, Jayachandra said.
New Biotechnology policy on cards
The State government is set to unveil a new Biotechnology policy soon to further consolidate Bengaluru’s status as a global BT hub. The proposed policy, for the next 5 years (2017-2022), will come out with attractive concessions and incentives to promote Research and Development and set up production units in Bengaluru and other parts of the state, Jayachandra said. The policy will cover domains like Stem Cells, Medical Devices, Rare Diseases, Bio-synthetics..etc.
Artificial Intelligence Centre in city
Bengaluru will soon get a Centre of Excellence in Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence to be set up by the State government in association with the Union government and NASSCOM. The state cabinet has approved the proposal which would give a big boost for development of emerging technologies and enhancing the skills of IT work force in the country, Jayachandra said.