State govt mulls over developing IT park in Dakshina Kannada

Issue will be discussed with CM on June 20, says IT-BT Minister S R Patil

In order to expand IT-BT sector to Tier-II and Tier-III cities from the existing Information Technology hub in Bangalore, the State government is contemplating to develop IT parks in other developing cities as well including in Mangalore, said IT-BT Minister S R Patil.

Revealing his plans to decentralise the IT-BT sector which is now controlled in Bangalore by a handful of people, he said the IT park will be developed in undivided Dakshina Kannada district for its immense contribution to the IT sector. IT industry should also be expanded to other Tier-II and Tier-III cities like Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad and Gulbarga which have mostly remain untouched by the industry, he said.

He was speaking after recieving felicitation at a programme organised by South Canara District Central Co-operative Society and Navodaya Gram Vikasa Charitable Trust, to felicitate newly elected MLAs and ministers at Loyola Hall at St Aloysius College premises on Sunday. “As the department came up with a plan to develop IT park in the undivided DK district, Udupi District-in-Charge Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake has brought us the proposal of providing 125 acres of land in the district for developing the IT park. The department is working out strategies on promoting rural BPOs in order to control migration to cities. All the matters will be discussed in a meeting with chief minister on June 20,” Patil told media persons on the sidelines of the programme.

Mentioning about the proposed IT corridor in Bangalore, the Minister said with the Central government showing green signal to the project, the IT corridor will be developed in a vast land, located 11 km away from Bangalore International Airport. The IT sector will also be utlised for bringing in transparency in the governance by introducing paperless system in all the government departments, he stated.

Farmers loan waiver

Forest and District-in-Charge Minister Ramanath Rai stressed on the need to waive the loans of farmers who obtain loans from money lenders with high interest rates, than that of the farmers who obtain loans from co-operative banks. The number of farmers who commit suicide failing to repay loans to the co-operative societies is considerably less compared to those committing suicide after failing to repay loans to money lenders, he said.

Lauding the efforts of co-operative socities towards welfare of the society, he said co-operative societies help farmers at a time when the nationalised banks refuse to lend loans. “Though banks are nationalised, bankers mindset has not been nationalised,” he quipped.

Earlier, in his introductory remarks, SCDCC Bank President M N Rajendra Kumar demanded the government to lessen the interest rates of loans issued to farmers and to introduce a system of depositing subsidy amounts given to farmers under various schemes, directly into the accounts of farmers. AICC General Secretary Oscar Fernandes inaugurated the function. Urban Development Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake, Health Minister U T Khader, Primary Education Minister Kimmane Rathnakar, Fisheries Minister Abhayachandra Jain and others were present.