Urban Development Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake on Thursday announced that the State government has decided to distribute Rs. 25 crore as relief to the areca farmers who have lost their crop due to ‘koleroga’ or fruit-rot disease.
Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Sorake said that the compensation would be distributed among the affected areca farmers in Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Shimoga districts.
He said a sum of Rs. 2.5 crore had been released to those affected by heavy rains in Udupi district under the Natural Calamities Fund. Udupi city has been brought under the Capacity Building programme of the Union government. Udupi will get Rs. 1 crore each every year for the next four years for training municipal officials under the Capacity Building programme, Mr. Sorake said.
He said under the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, as many as 26,710 toilets would be built in the district in 2013-14 in houses which did not have the facility. Already, 2,269 toilets had been constructed at a cost of Rs. 1.01 crore.
Land had been allotted for the construction of a postgraduate (PG) centre of Mangalore University at Belapu village, about 25 km from Udupi.
The government has waived agricultural and non-agricultural loans of 1,340 Scheduled Caste beneficiaries totalling Rs. 2.78 crore in Udupi district. It has also written off agricultural and non-agricultural loans of 26 Scheduled Tribe beneficiaries to the tune of Rs. 6.35 crore, he said. Both the SC/ST beneficiaries have taken these loans from the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Development Corporation.
Self-help groups in Udupi district would be trained and sanctioned loans under the National Rural Livelihood Mission. Infrastructure would be improved in Mangalore, Puttur, Udupi and Kundapur towns under phase-2 of the Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environment Management Project (KUDCEMP).
Drinking water
A Rs. 1,760-crore project had been prepared to provide round-the-clock water supply to entire corporation areas of Belgaum, Gulbarga, and Hubli-Dharwad cities on private-public partnership (PPP) model with assistance from World Bank.
An innovative Urban Development Project is being conceptualised for city cluster development around Bangalore. The ministry, Mr. Sorake said, was also preparing a detailed project report for suburban railway system for Bangalore.
Mr. Sorake also released a booklet highlighting the achievements of the Siddaramaiah government in the last 100 days.
