Bengaluru, Apr 13 (IANS): With coronavirus pandemic and subsequent 21-day lockdown triggering a financial crisis, cash-starved Karnataka would auction 12,000 housing sites in Bengaluru to raise funds, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa said on Monday.

"The government will auction 12,000 corner sites lying idle in Bengaluru to raise funds for developmental works in the state," Yediyurappa told reporters after a meeting with ministers and officials concerned here.

Yediyurappa also holds the portfolio of Bengaluru development.

Bracing for hard times in the post-lockdown period, the meeting explored means to mobilise resources for funding the schemes and programmes announced in the state Budget for fiscal 2020-21.

"The state government will also be able to mobilise funds from stamp duty and penalty by regularising unauthorised houses and buildings after a speedy disposal of the cases pending in the High Court and the Supreme Court," said the Chief Minister.

Though the state government is set to extend the 3-week lockdown by 15 days in the coronavirus hotspots like Bengaluru and Mysuru, if not in the entire state, from April 15, it is waiting for the Centre's guidelines for partial relaxation of its rules.

"The meeting also decided to amend the law to allow sale of vacant sites/plots in private and cooperative housing societies across the state for constructing homes or flats and raise funds from their registration fee, including stamp duty," said Yediyurappa.