The Karnataka Cabinet on Saturday decided to establish a delimitation commission for delimitation of zilla and taluk panchayat constituencies in the State by amending the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, 1993.
With many lapses in the delimitation exercise undertaken by the Karnataka State Election Commission (SEC) and petitions related to the matter pending in the High Court of Karnataka, the Cabinet decided to set up the commission headed by a retired Additional Chief Secretary.
Delimitation of constituencies is not the task of the SEC and it is wrongly perceived to be so, said Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy after the Cabinet meeting. The new commission would be aided by the Panchayat Raj Department and its Secretary would be a member while the Commissioner would be ex-officio member of the commission, he said.
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The government would inform the High Court of Karnataka on Monday about the Cabinet decision to establish the delimitation commission and the new commission would be set up if the court agrees. The Minister said over 2,000 petitions pending before the High Court were related to “gross errors” in the delimitation exercise undertaken by the SEC, Mr. Madhuswamy said.
Noting that grievances related to delimitation of constituencies would be heard at the Deputy Commissioner level first and later by the commission, he said elections to ZPs and TPs would be held after fresh delimitation exercise, which in turn lead to postponement of elections to rural local bodies.
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The Cabinet decided to drop the Karnataka Lokayutka’s recommendation to prosecute T.S. Subramanya, Deputy Director of Mysore Palace Board, with regard to shooting of film outside and inside the Mysuru Palace premises.
The Cabinet also dropped the Lokayutka’s recommendation to prosecute Mr. Subramanya with regard to alleged poor quality of golden paint work at Durbar Hall of the palace. The anti-corruption watchdog had booked cases against the official under the Anti-Corruption Act.
GTTCs
The Cabinet approved establishment of Government Tool Room and Training Centres (GTTCs) under the NABARD aid at Chikkakalya in Magadi, Ramanagaram district, and at Chennarayapatna in Devanahalli taluk of Bengaluru Rural district at an estimated cost of ₹101.97 crore. It was decided that 13,061 tool-kits would be provided to all students of industrial training institutes belonging to SC and ST categories in 2021–22. The estimated cost would be ₹17.18 crore.