The acute shortage of residential quarters for the police is a matter of concern not just for the force and the government but it also has implications for the general public, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told the third All India Police Housing Conference here on Thursday.
Mr. Siddaramaiah, who inaugurated the conference, said, “Housing, particularly for the constabulary, has a huge bearing on its morale and directly impacts the quality of policing.”
Setting a deadline of a decade, he said that the government wants to provide housing to at least 80 per cent of the force. Now, less than 40 per cent of police personnel have residential quarters. To achieve the target of 80 per cent housing, he said that 3.5 lakh housing units had to be built and asked the Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation (KSPHC) to come up with a detailed project report to achieve this task.
Home Minister K.J. George said that the government wants to identify land for police quarters near transport hubs such as bus and metro train terminals to reduce the reaction time of the force. However, he said the main constraint is availability of land.
He announced the State government’s plans to utilise the police housing corporation to build infrastructure and usher in development in areas where Left wing extremism is posing a threat.
Earlier in the day, he inaugurated the Fast Track Construction Technology Park built by the corporation at Adugodi. The park has 10 residential units built at a cost of Rs. 1.25 crore. The entire project was completed in 15 days using prefabricated units — a technology imported from Australia.
