With the Police Department facing a severe shortage of housing quarters in Bengaluru, the State government has mooted a plan to purchase unsold housing complexes (flats/apartments) constructed by Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) for providing houses to police personnel.
Official sources in the Home Department said the government has chalked out a plan for providing quarters for a majority of police personnel in the city by 2020. A plan has been prepared to build 11,000 houses for police personnel in the next couple of years.
Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara, who also holds the Home and Bengaluru Development portfolios, has favoured purchase of BDA flats by the Home Department. Since BDA comes under the jurisdiction of Dr. Parameshwara, the government has proposed to purchase nearly 2,000 houses/flats constructed by the authority in the city limits, official sources said. Nearly 7,000 flats/houses constructed by the BDA and Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) in the city limits have remained unsold.
In fact, the KHB has not been able to sell its flats/houses for several years in Bengaluru, Mangaluru, and Kalaburagi reportedly because they are not Vaastu compliant.
Dr. Parameshwara has asked the BDA to roll out its plan on selling its unsold houses/flats to the Home Department. “Of course, price wise, BDA flats/houses will be a little more expensive. But since it is a sale between departments, we can match the price,” he told The Hindu , a few days ago.
Meanwhile, the Home Department has decided to build 11,000 ‘Police Gruha’ to meet around 70% of the housing demand of police personnel. “Now, we have handed over about 4,500 houses,” the Minister said. The construction of police quarters was a continuous process and the department was expected to cater to the demand in the next couple of years, Dr. Parameshwara said.
