The State government on Thursday approved two road development projects in 189 rural assembly constituencies with an expenditure of Rs. 3,659.83 crore.
The decision will facilitate the development of 5,728 km of roads in the rural parts of the State.
The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, resolved to exempt these roads from the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), which lays down certain conditions, including population, for taking up the work, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri told presspersons here.
The Cabinet, he said, approved a Rs. 2,416.36-crore road development programme in 189 rural assembly constituencies to develop 30 km of roads in each constituency, at a cost of Rs. 42 lakh, including maintenance for five years.
Besides this, another 20 km of roads in each of the 189 rural Assembly constituencies would be developed with an expenditure of Rs. 1,245.97 crore under the Chief Minister’s “Our Village-Our Road” programme, he said.
The decision would help develop 50 km of roads, in all, in 189 rural assembly constituencies. These two programmes were part of the budget presented by the former Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, and the government had accorded administration sanction now, Mr. Kageri said.
Canal
In a view to develop Hyderabad Karnataka region, the government had decided to modernise 531 km of the Vijayanagar Canal under the Tungabhadra Right Bank Channel at a cost of Rs. 255 crore, which would benefit Koppal, Bellary and Raichur districts.
The Cabinet had approved the setting up of an Agriculture College in Gangavati at a cost of Rs. 46.50 crore, made a special allocation of Rs. 50 crore to North-West Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation to buy new buses, sanctioned 50 acres of land to Garments Exports Manufacturing Association in Aladahalli village of Bellary taluk, he said.
Aid for Metro
Mr. Kageri said that the Cabinet had approved a Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation proposal to seek $ 250 million financial assistance from Asian Development Bank (ADB) to fund the first phase of metro rail project. “A memorandum of understanding signed by Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited and ADB has been ratified,” he said.
The Cabinet had accorded approval for the setting up of the Sangameshwara Sugar Mills at Devapura Hatti in Raibagh taluk of Belgaum district with a capacity to crush 2,500 tonnes of sugarcane a day, he added.
Amendment
The Cabinet had approved an amendment to the Karnataka Electricity Act to improve safety measures and accorded permission to grant pay-scales applicable to doctors working in the Health and Family Welfare Department, and to doctors coming under AYUSH.
The Minister said that AYUSH doctors, who were getting salaries in the pay-scales of Rs. 26,000-Rs. 47,700, will now get salaries in the range of Rs. 28,100-Rs. 50,100.
The other decisions include sanctioning two acres of land to the Babu Jagajivan Ram Trust at Kudlu village in Anekal taluk for building Jagajivan Ram Bhavan and two acres of land to the Kanakadasa Seva Trust at Somenakoppa in Shimoga district for the construction of Kanaka Bhavan. Approval had been granted to the guidelines drafted for determining below poverty line families, he said.
