The Congress government on Wednesday gave a clean chit to the previous BJP regime with regard to construction of the Suvarna Soudha in Belagavi.
Following allegations of irregularities in the construction of the Suvarna Soudha during the previous BJP regime, the Congress government had ordered an inquiry by Additional Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar. The construction cost of the building had increased from the earlier approved plan of ₹230 crore to ₹438.4 crore.
A Cabinet meeting, presided by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, accepted the report given by Mr. Bhaskar, which has not found any irregularities in the construction. Former president Pranab Mukherjee had inaugurated the Suvarna Soudha in 2012.
Universities
The Cabinet has approved the Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheswara University Bill, 2017, for the establishment of the university in Dharwad, and the Khaja Bandanawaz University Bill, 2017, for the varsity in Kalaburagi. The Cabinet also gave approval for implementation of Integrated Court Management System in High Court of Karnataka and its benches in Dharwad and Kalaburagi. With this, offices of courts become paperless and enables judges to post judgments online and hold trial through videoconferences.
The estimated cost of the project is ₹43.5 crore and it is to be executed in three years.
Hospital
The government has decided to develop a super-speciality hospital in Srinivaspura taluk of Kolar district by entering into an agreement with B.R. Shetty, the founder and non-executive chairman of the Abu Dhabi-based NMC Healthcare, West Asia’s largest integrated private healthcare provider.
The 300-bed hospital will be developed on the PPP model on 25 acres of land. Mr. Shetty developed the government hospital in Udupi. It was decided to include Kadugolla and Hattigolla, synonymous with the Golla community, in Number 86 of Category One of the Backward Classes list, Mr. Jayachandra said.
