Minister for Medical Education Sharanprakash Patil has expressed disappointment over the slow progress of works taken up under the State Finance Commission from 2011-12 to 2017-18 and works under the 14th Finance Commission Grants in the last three years in Kalaburagi district.
Chairing the Kannada development Programme review meeting in Kalaburagi on Saturday, Dr. Patil was irked by the lackadaisical response from officials in taking up development programmes. He said that there is no accountability; the officials are not providing proper answers regarding the status of work. The Minister expressed unhappiness over the non-implementation of housing schemes, including Devaraj Urs Rural Housing Scheme and Vajpayee Urban Housing Scheme.
Dr. Patil directed officials to complete the pipeline laying works to extend 24 x 7 water supply schemes to Sedam, Chittapur and Shahabad town by February 2018. The officials of Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board (KUWS&DB) said that tap connections would be provided to 82,000 applicants. Adding to this, P. Sunil Kumar, Kalaburagi City Corporation Commissioner, said that more than 1.30 lakh households in the city required tap connections.
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The Minister also enquired about the progress of the work on the pipeline from Bennethora dam to Central University of Kalaburagi at Kadaganchi, via Taj Sultanpur.
The estimated cost of the project has been put at ₹ 535 crore, Dr. Patil said and added that an additional ₹ 30 crore would be sanctioned from the Hyderabad Karnataka Regional Development Board (HKRDB) for the project. This would be considered as an alternative for a long-term measure to meet the drinking water requirement of the city, he said.
For Phase IV of the underground drainage programme, the State government has allocated ₹ 173.69 crore for creating a network of 230 km of lines in two packages, officials said. In the first package, a stretch of around 160 km would be linked with underground drainage pipelines and the remaining 71.68 km would be covered under the second package. The scheme would also include a sewage treatment plant of 25 MLD at Kapnoor on the outskirts of the city.
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Earlier, Dr. Patil expressed unhappiness with the City Municipal Council and Town Municipal Council (ULBs) about the poor collection of property tax and water cess from citizens to augment revenue. The collectable property tax demand for this year in ULBs was ₹ 629.73 lakh, of which only ₹ 354.45 lakh (56.29 %) was collected. Only ₹ 61.07 lakh (20.91%) of water tax was collected against the total demand of ₹ 292.08 lakh and the collection of trade licence fee stands at 19.75 %.
Mayor Sharankumar Modi, chairman of the Kalaburagi Urban Development Authority Mohammad Asgar Chulbul and MLC Basavaraj Patil were present.