The State Cabinet on Saturday gave its nod for setting up a State Disaster Response Force comprising personnel with specialised training for dealing with natural and man-made calamities.
Addressing a press conference after the Cabinet meeting, Law Minister Suresh Kumar said the state-level force would be modelled on the National Disaster Response Force and would be stationed at four places in the State - Bangalore, Mangalore, Belgaum and Gulbarga.
The personnel for the four units would be drawn from the Karnataka State Reserve Police, Home Guards and Fire Force and they will be given specialised training. In all, the response force will have 540 personnel to deal with different types of man-made and natural disasters. For instance, the unit stationed at Mangalore will be imparted training on dealing with nuclear disasters and coastal calamities, Kumar said.
New engineering colleges
In another major decision, the State Cabinet gave its nod for setting up two new engineering colleges at Mangalore and Koppal. The colleges to be established in the next academic year (2014-15) will come up at a cost of Rs 25 crore each.
Initially, the colleges will offer five courses. Already, there are 11 government engineering colleges, 11 aided engineering colleges and 195 private engineering colleges in the State.
The Cabinet decided to set up task force at the State and district levels to safeguard Wakf properties. Suresh Kumar said the task force at the district level would be headed by the jurisdictional deputy commissioner and the State-level task force would be headed by an additional chief secretary.
The Karnataka State Minorities Commission headed by Anwar Manipady had submitted a report to the State government last year stating that the property belonging to Wakf Board assessed at Rs two lakh crore had been usurped by politicians and real estate mafia.
Cases against farmers
The Cabinet also gave its nod to withdraw cases filed against farmers involved in various agitations in Hassan, Mandya, Mysore, Tumkur, Davangere and Haveri. In all, cases filed in ten instances will be withdrawn.
The State Cabinet decided to give power subsidy at Re one per unit with a ceiling of 50 lakh units per annum to Shahi Exports Private Limited which has set up a Rs 140-crore readymade garment unit in Maddur with an employment potential of 8,000.
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