Karnataka government plans to raise funds by selling Bengaluru housing sites.

As per Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on 13 April, with the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent 21-day lockdown causing a financial crisis, cash-starved Karnataka agreed to auction 12,000 housing sites to raise funds.

“The government will auction 12,000 corner sites, idle in Bengaluru, to collect funds for development work,” Yediyurappa said following a meeting with ministers and officials here. The meeting discussed forms and means of mobilizing capital to support different schemes, declared on March 5 in the 2020-21 budget and passed on March 24 in the Assembly.

“The state government would also be able to mobilize stamp duty and penalty funds by regularizing illegal houses and buildings after rapid disposal of the cases pending in the high court and the Supreme Court,” the chief minister said.

“The meeting also agreed to amend the legislation to require empty sites/plots to be sold in private and cooperative housing societies to construct homes or flats and collect funds from their registration fees, including stamp duties,” Yediyurappa said.

The meeting also agreed to use Rs 1,000 crore to modernize all state-run hospitals and improve services with the state-run Rajiv Gandhi Health University.