Puttur MLA Ashok Rai has directed officials to prioritise habitable land, road access and water connections while allocating government housing sites to landless families in Puttur assembly constituency. The instructions were issued at a progress review meeting on housing-site allocation held at the Puttur taluk panchayat hall on Saturday.
Rai said sites selected for beneficiaries should be suitable for habitation rather than merely available parcels of land. He also said funds would be provided on a priority basis to connect the sites with roads and water infrastructure.
The allocation process follows the state government’s plan to identify landless families and provide them with housing sites. According to Rai, a target has been set to distribute sites to around 50,000 families in each district. Deputy commissioners have been instructed to identify land within two months and secure approval for the layouts.
Officials have also been asked to identify genuine beneficiaries and upload their details to the Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation portal. Data presented at the meeting showed that applications from 22 gram panchayats in Puttur taluk, nine gram panchayats in Bantwal taluk, Puttur City Municipal Council and Vittal Town Panchayat had been submitted to the portal.
The applications included 1,744 from gram panchayats in Puttur taluk, 973 from gram panchayats in Bantwal taluk, 252 from the Puttur municipal area and 246 from Vittal Town Panchayat. The figures were provided by Puttur Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer Naveen Kumar Bhandari.
Water infrastructure was a major part of the review. Rai said ₹1 crore had been released for drinking-water projects and would be distributed among the gram panchayats. He instructed officials to give priority to laying pipelines to the housing-site areas using these funds.
The multi-village drinking-water project in the Puttur constituency is in its final stage, and partial supply is expected to begin in December, Rai said. However, pipeline work and tank construction on forest land remain pending. Officials are attempting to secure alternative land so the required infrastructure can be completed. Pipeline work along the national highway is also pending and is being pursued at the departmental level.
Puttur constituency was described at the meeting as being in the leading position in Dakshina Kannada district in identifying land for housing sites. Rai said landless applicants could be allotted sites in another village if suitable land was available there, regardless of their original village. He said the state government had been informed of this approach and approval had been obtained from the chief minister.
The meeting also discussed the allocation of sites reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe beneficiaries when eligible applicants are not available in a particular village. Rai said the government had been informed that such sites could be allotted to other beneficiaries in those circumstances.
The review was attended by Puttur Taluk Guarantee Implementation Committee chairman Umanath Shetty Perne, Puttur Tahsildar S.B. Koodalagi, Bantwal Tahsildar Manjunath and Bantwal Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer Sachin Kumar. The immediate administrative milestones are the identification of land within two months, layout approvals and completion of the beneficiary verification process on the housing corporation portal.
