Centre approves housing projects for Karnataka

With real estate prices in urban centres soaring beyond the common man's reach, the Centre on Monday sanctioned 25 housing projects under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) and seven projects under the Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) programme for poll-bound Karnataka.

The projects, approved by the central sanctioning and monitoring committee, envisages the construction of 34,899 houses at a cost of Rs 655 crore. While 13,053 houses will be constructed under IHSDP, 21,846 houses will be constructed under BSUP. The cost of these projects will be shared between the Centre and the Karnataka government.

While the Centre's share under IHSDP is Rs 145.76 crore, the state's share is Rs 94.51 crore. The Centre has already released its first installment of Rs 72.88 crore.

The IHSDP was launched in 2005 to provide better housing facilities to urban slum dwellers.

The programme was conceived by merging the Valmiki Ambedkar Awaas Yojana (VAMBAY) and the National Slum Development Programme (NSDP). The programme covers all the towns in the country except the 63 mission cities covered BSUP, which is part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

Under BSUP, the Centre's share is Rs 272.97 crore and that of the state government is Rs 237.30 crore. The Centre has also released its first installment of Rs 68.24 crore. The projects under BSUP will be taken up Bangalore and Mysore, which are covered by JNNURM.

Though the Centre contended that approvals have been given to these projects to ensure the basic infrastructure for the urban poor, the timing of the approval has raised many an eyebrow in the political circles.

It is another election gimmick by the Congress which is heading the UPA government at the Centre, alleged the JD(S) and BJP.

Countering it, a Congress leader said: "The JD(S) and BJP are only trying to camouflage their failure to provide housing facilities to the urban poor by making such baseless allegations against our party. The JD(S)-BJP alliance, while in power, had promised to construct 300,000 houses within two months and had even set deadlines. But did not deliver. However, the Congress-led UPA has gone a step ahead and released funds for the housing projects."