Housing Social responsibility of the Government

Business lawyers, senior advocates, property lawyers in Bangalore, property advocates in Bangalore

Housing is one of the essential basic needs for a peaceful living which is still remaining a distant dream for the people of Bangalore. On one side the population of the city is growing fast which has already crossed one crore mark. As such this problem has to be addressed on a war footing by the Government Agencies to provide affordable housing and thus prevent haphazard growth of the city.

But the main government agencies dealing with housing problems i.e., the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) are not taking any positive steps to solve this problem since a long time. This has provided ample opportunities to some of the unscrupulous developers who are forming illegal layouts and cheating the public of their hard earned money. This has further lead to the the haphazard, unplanned growth of the city without proper basic amenities like proper roads, parks, schools, etc., The government must take stringent steps to curb this menace immediately before the situation goes out of control.

The BDA must take immediate steps to form new layouts with provision for basic amenities to meet the growing needs of housing. The present practice of simply forming the layouts without providing civic amenities and making the allottees to wait for several years for facilities may be discontinued. Further, it is suggested that proper rules / guidelines must be framed for development of private layouts in conformity with the BDA layouts. Special attention is needed in providing necessary infrastructure while forming the layouts itself keeping in view the development of the areas in the next 20 years. Apart from this the BDA may also take initiative in developing full fledged townships on the outskirts with civic amenities and better road and rail connectivity. This will ease the congestion / pressure on the infrastructure in the central business areas. Further, the KHB must take up projects to construct houses with good planning and quality. At present most of the flats constructed by them are remaining unsold because of high price. On the other hand it is suggested they must construct affordable flats / houses to cater to the needs of the middleclass, lower income group and economically weaker sections of society.

The housing needs of the people cannot be fully met by the government agencies like BDA/KHB alone. Hence, the role of the private property developers cannot be overlooked. It would be fair and also necessary in the present situation if the Government encourage private property developers to form layouts. But, it would be better if the government introduces the single window clearance system for approval of layouts formed by them to avoid unnecessary delay in granting approval avoiding bureaucratic bottlenecks which leads to corruption. At the same stringent punishment may be inflicted on the property developers who violate building bye laws, other statutory regulations and cheat the public.