Somanna reviews works

Promise overall development of Hassan district

Somanna, who visited the district for the first time after being appointed the District Incharge Minister, asked the officials to be alert while on duty. Otherwise they will be shown their way. “I am not a Minister who will visit once in a while and leave”.

The Minister sought information on the priority issues like addressing the needs of Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences, disbursal of compensation to farmers for crop loss and also work on the much ambitious Hassan Airport. Director of HIMS said his office has sent a Rs 35 crore project to the State Government to start post graduate courses as part of the third phase of expansion of the college. However, the approval is awaited.
In response, the Minister asked the Director to come to Bangalore on Thursday with all relevant papers and project details.

On the occasion, ZP members and MLA Rudreshgowda alleged that the all major highways and roads in the district and the city were in a bad state owing  due to indiscriminate plying of the sandladen trucks. ZP president Mahadevamma said that the ZP has prepared a Rs 9.98 crore project to mitigate the problem of drinking water in the district. But, the proposal is not yet approved by the government. She demanded early release of compensation package to farmers who suffered huge crop loss in recent rains,  and  a BCM hostel for girls and boys.

Somanna asked transport department officials not to allow over loaded sandladen trucks on highways. He also asked the authorities to submit details of all the pending projects. The Minister informed that Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa would be visiting the district on Nov 9 to lay foundation to many development works.

To a question from MLA Rudreshwgowda, the Minister allayed fears of fall of the BJP Government and exuded his confidence that the government would complete its term of five years. “I will be district-incharge minister for next three years and there is no doubt about it, he said.

Somanna sought co-operation of all the elected representatives to strive for overall development of the district.

BPL cards   

He  said that there were lot of confusions in the distribution of BPL cards and his department is planning to adopt the Kamaraj Naadar rule to address issues concerning identification and disbursal of cards.

In reply to a grievance at a review meeting, he said records showed that there were 1.10 crore BPL families in State but as many as 1.42 crore BPL cards have been distributed. Despite this, there are complaints of poor families not getting BPL cards.
Hence, the department is going for transparent method and officials would be directly held responsible for any lapses, he said.

He said APL card holders would also start getting rice and wheat from Nov 2. The APL card holders can avail upto 50 kilos of rice for Rs 9.50 and 10 kilos of wheat for Rs 7 a kilo, he said. The State will be first to introduce such a scheme in the Country, he added.