The Karnataka Cabinet on Wednesday is learnt to have approved the establishment of a Prison Development Board that will look into welfare measures for penitentiary staff and explore avenues to engage inmates in economic activities.
The Karnataka Prison Development Board Bill, 2021, was approved in the Cabinet, sources said. This is on the lines of what states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Punjab have done. The Board will allow for manufacturing units to be set up within jail premises.
The Cabinet is said to have cleared a plan to supply free textbooks for students in classes 1-10 in government and government-aided schools and to 74 Adarsha Vidyalayas from classes 6-10 at an estimated cost of Rs 153.91 crore for the 2021-22 academic year.
According to sources, the Cabinet approved two Bills mooted by the Cooperation Department - the Karnataka Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill and the Karnataka Souharda Sahakari (Amendment) Bill. The propose of the Bills is to restrict a person from being a member of multiple societies of the same kind. For instance, a person who is a member of a housing society cannot become a member of another housing society. Also, the proposed legislation will allow secretaries to be transferred from one primary agriculture credit society (PACS) of a taluk to another one.
In another decision, the Cabinet is believed to have approved an amendment to the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act, which proposes to exempt the state-run Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd (KRIDL) to rural take up works worth Rs 2 crore without going through the tender process.
The Cabinet on Wednesday informally discussed the April 17 bypolls to the Belgaum Lok Sabha, Maski and Basavakalyan Assembly constituencies. While some ministers are said to have favoured curtailing the ongoing session of the legislature in view of the bypolls, no decision was taken. The Session is scheduled to go on till March 31.
The Cabinet concluded that the government will consider curtailing the Session only if the Opposition pressed for it, sources said.
During the discussion, Yediyurappa supposedly asked his colleagues to focus on the bypolls after the end of the legislative session and pointed out that the Congress held sway over Maski and Basavakalyan.