Taluk issues examined in meeting

Local officials have been instructed to reserve one of the shops owned by the Town Municipal Council (TMC), exclusively for the promotion of cottage-industry products made by women of self-help groups.

The statement was made by Legislator N H Shivashankar Reddy while speaking at the Karnataka Development Project meeting organised at the Taluk Panchayat auditorium, recently.

Over the contentious issue of the high prices of fertilisers, in particular Urea, by licensed vendors and by ‘black-marketeers’, several taluk panchayat members alleged that the officials of the Agriculture department had failed to take any action against the offenders.

Agriculture Officer Anuroopa answered this by saying that the department had not received any complaints from farmers. “Action will be immediately taken against the sellers as soon as a complaint is lodged,” she added.

Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer Reddappa suggested that a committee headed by the tahsildar be formed to conduct surprise raids on shops where fertilisers are being sold above government-fixed prices. “The committee should cancel the licence of the sellers,” he added. However, the panchayat members said that until today not a single case has been registered against the fertiliser sellers.

Changing the subject to the matter of education allowances to SC/ST students, Reddy said that Social Welfare Department officials and Block Education officers have been directed to credit the allowance directly into the bank accounts of students.

Women and Child Welfare Department’s Jayalakshmamma added that many anganwadi centres in the taluk lacked the proper facilites to cook and to house LPG cylinders. To this,  Zilla Panchayat engineer said that stone blocks would be laid to aid cooking.