The State government is preparing a detailed proposal to set up a Central Institute of Classical Kannada (CICK), following a direction of the Ministry of Union Human Resource Development.
Replying to Doddarange Gowda (BJP) during Question Hour in the Legislative Council on Friday, Minister of State for Kannada and Culture Umashree promised to take everyone into confidence while preparing the proposal.
She said following suggestions from experts, the State government had appealed to the HRD Ministry to sanction the CICK on the Tamil Nadu model. The Mysore-based Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) has been made the nodal agency to coordinate all those working to develop Kannada. The CIIL established the Centre for Excellence in 2011 for the purpose, although the people were not happy with the functioning of CIIL.
Though Rs. 4.9 crore was released to CIIL for development of Kannada, only Rs. 72.01 lakh was utilised in the last three years. Upset with the development, people have demanded that CICK be set up on the lines of the Tamil Nadu model. Meanwhile, the government has released Rs.1 crore each to 10 universities to take up work on the classical language. A committee has been constituted to look into the utilisation of funds earmarked for the programme.
Clarifying that a writ petition filed by a Chennai-based advocate had not been vacated so far, she said every effort was being made to address the legal hurdles.
Stern actionThe government has warned private bus operators of serious action if they fail to fix emergency doors in their vehicles in the next three months.
Replying to Raghunathrao Malkapure (BJP), Minister for Transport R. Ramalinga Reddy said the government would withdraw the transport permits if the operators fail to fix emergency doors.
The Minister said the department had taken up regular checks on buses in the last one month and have penalised buses for loading commercial goods in passenger vehicles. “Drivers and conductors have been instructed to announce safety guidelines and inform passengers about emergency exits. This is modelled on the safety instructions given in aircraft,” Mr. Reddy said.
GuidelinesHe also said bus operators have been told to maintain trip sheets. Other guidelines include having three copies of passengers’ trip sheets, driver’s duty not to exceed eight hours, having first-aid kit and fire extinguishers in buses.
