Centre sanctions additional 4.68L houses for poor people in K'taka

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan on Saturday said the Centre has sanctioned an additional 4.68 lakh houses for the people from the economically weaker sections in Karnataka. This is apart from the 2.57 lakh houses sanctioned by the Centre originally, Chauhan, who holds rural development, agriculture and farmers' Welfare portfolio, told reporters here.

The Minister said he had a meeting with Karnataka rural development, revenue and agriculture ministers this morning. After Narendra Modi took oath as the Prime Minister for the third term, he sanctioned 2.57 lakh houses in September as part of his commitment to provide a 'Pucca' house for every poor family of the state and released grants for it, he said. "Now we have decided to increase the target and, in all, we have sanctioned 4.68 lakh additional houses. For BJP, serving poor is the worship of God," the Minister said.

Chauhan appealed to the Karnataka government to complete the housing project at the earliest. Under the Border Area Development Scheme Rs 97 crore will be released for Karnataka, the Minister said adding that the Centre also agreed to release additional grants for the mechanization scheme in the agriculture department. The Centre has also sanctioned additional staff under the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) scheme. Chauhan said, "I appeal to the state government to utilise these funds on time and send us the Utilisation Certificate."