Karnataka netas now want an exclusive township for themselves

BENGALURU: Netas in Karnataka have mooted an exclusive housing plan for themselves: It will be christened “The Legislature Township” and is likely to come up on a 100-acre plot near Whitefield in Bengaluru.The legislature township , a first of its kind in the country, will not only provide independent houses to the members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) and members of legislative council (MLCs) but will also provide accommodation for officers attached to both the houses of the legislature. The township will also have sprawling bungalows for the assembly speaker and the council chairman and will also have all modern amenities such as a club house, a community hall, a recreation centre and a playground.Speaking to The Times of India, legislative assembly speaker K B Koliwad said: “The basic idea was to have a residential layout for the legislators on the lines of the accommodation provided to judges of Karnataka high court at Nyaya Grama near Hebbal in Bengaluru. This concept was mooted some time back and is still in the planning stage. As the Bengaluru district administration has recovered hundreds of acres of encroached government lands in the recent months we had suggested the officials to identify places measuring over 50 acres to develop the township.”Currently, the 225 MLAs and 75 MLCs are allotted rooms in the Legislators’ Home (LH), located next to Vidhana Soudha . The ministers have been allotted bungalows and different parts of the city. “But the rooms at LH are too small and do not have other features usually offered by private realtors. We want houses that are spacious and have better facilities. This is possible by developing a new residential complex. Legislators can stay in these houses till they are in office and vacate when their respective terms tend,” a legislator, who did not want to be named.Koliwad added: “The officials surveyed two-three tracts of land. We are in the process of zeroing in on one of these.” However, sources in the legislature maintained that the most favoured place has been the 711-acre Kadugodi plantation near Whitefield. “We can use 100 acres from the plantation, which was recently categorized as revenue land. Currently, private properties have come up on 19 acres of land and the status of 34 acres is yet to be decided by the court. However, the land (nearly 100 acres) held by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) can house the proposed township,” sources said.But not everyone is enthused about the project. A few bureaucrats, who did not want to be named, said: “Though the township concept is good the logistics pertaining to it make it impractical. The distance between Vidhana Soudha and Whitefield is nearly 20 km and will our netas be ready to spend more than an hour in traffic? Why should a housing project be taken up when the LH itself is under-utilized? The project would cost hundreds of crores of rupees, is it worth it?”