Not even 30% of houses promised to beneficiaries under various housing schemes in the state have neared completion. Of a total of 4.61 lakh houses sanctioned under 10 housing schemes in the state over the last three years, the government has completed only 1.3 lakh houses, government data shows.
According to data tabled by the Housing Department to the Legislative Council in response to questions in this regard raised by MLCs D S Arun and Aravind Kumar Arali, the government has sanctioned as many as 4,61,159 houses beginning from 2020-21. Of these, only 1,30,471 houses are complete and 1,36,180 houses are in various stages of completion.
The construction work is yet to begin with respect to 1,91,332 houses and the department has withheld as many as 3,176 houses sanctioned, for technical reasons.
According to data with the Housing Department, the progress has been especially slow in some North Karnataka districts. For instance, in Bagalkot, of the total 14,463 houses sanctioned, only 3,604 have been completed so far. In another instance in Vijayanagar only 444 of the 11,544 houses are completed. Progress has been slow in Bengaluru Urban too with 15,491 houses sanctioned but only 2,673 nearing completion.
The state government is implementing four housing schemes under rural housing, including Basava Housing Scheme, Devaraj Urs Housing Scheme, B R Ambedkar Housing Scheme and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Rural). The urban housing projects include Vajpayee Urban Housing Project, B R Ambedkar Nivas Yojana, Devaraj Urs Housing Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Beneficiary-led Construction BLC-NC), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Affordable Housing in Partnership-Karnataka Slum Development Board - AHP-KSDB) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Affordable Housing in Partnership-Urban Local Bodies - AHP-ULB).
The department also stated in its response that no new houses have been sanctioned under the Siddaramaiah government which took charge six months ago, but instead it is focusing on completing the existing pending projects.