Date:23/03/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/03/23/stories/2003032302300400.htm

Southern States - Karnataka

16,000 more houses to be built in HK

By Our Staff Correspondent

BIDAR March 22. An additional 16,000 houses will be constructed in the five districts of the Hyderabad Karnataka region, according to the Housing Secretary, Bulla Subba Rao.

Addressing a press conference here today, Mr. Subba Rao, who is the nodal officer for Bidar District, said the houses would be built at a cost of Rs. 33 crore. The Centre had agreed to give Rs. 25 crore and the State Government would provide the rest as a matching grant. Each taluk would get 500 houses. Bidar District would get 3,000 houses.

Mr. Subba Rao said the scheme had been mentioned in the Budget. During a meeting with the Planning Commission, the Chief Minister sought some special grants for which the Centre agreed to sanction Rs. 25 crore, provided the State gave a matching grant. It was decided to build the houses in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, he added.

Earlier, Mr. Subba Rao took the Executive Engineer of the Bidar Zilla Panchayat, Mallikarjun Gunge, to task for giving misleading information on the status of open wells in the district.

When Mr. Subba Rao announced that nearly 45 open wells of the 148 taken up in the district had been commissioned, some presspersons differed with his the statement. They contended that the executive engineer had given wrong information on the status of open wells.

They said though the records showed that an open well had been commissioned at Shekhapur village in Bidar taluk, work on it was continuing a year after it began.

When Mr. Subba Rao sought an explanation from Mr. Gunge, the latter gave a confusing reply. Enraged by this, Mr. Subba Rao took him to task.