Legislature briefs

RGUHS building in Ramanagar

»Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash R Patil has said that the government will appeal to the Supreme Court to vacate the status quo on construction of a building of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) at Archakarahalli in Ramanagar district.

Replying to a question by Congress member Syed Mudheer Aga, the minister told the Council that the matter was pending before the apex court since  2011, which has directed to maintain status quo. The construction will begin once the status quo order is vacated.

When JD(S) member M C Nanaiah pointed out that no effort was made by the government to get the status quo vacated, Patil said the matter was coming up for hearing on September 3. That time, the State would appeal to vacate the status quo and allow construction. He said some of the residents had challenged the land acquisition to construct the varsity building.

Medical colleges in all districts

»In a written reply to BJP’s Dr A H Shivayogiswami, Sharanprakash Patil said that it had already been announced in the budget that medical colleges would be set up in Karwar, Kodagu, Koppal and Chamarajanagar.

He said that a proposal had been sent to the Central government and Medical Council of India to set up government medical colleges in Tumkur, Chitradurga, Gadag, Haveri, Koppal, Kodagu and Chamarajanagar districts.

Fair price shops to display boards

»The State government told the Council that it will issue guidelines to fair price depots (FPDs), to have a board to display timings and the list of holidays every month.

In his reply to a question by nominated member M D Lakshminarayana, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said that in the existing system, it had become practically difficult to monitor the functioning of these shops.

Replying to another question by Congress member Mahantesh Koujalagi, Rao said the government was seriously considering to distribute jowar through the public distribution scheme. Koujalagi urged the minister to procure jowar from the farmers by providing a minimum support price and distribute the same along with rice. He said that the State government was procuring rice at a cost of Rs 29 per kg from Chhattisgarh, while quality jowar was available at much lesser cost.


‘End to misuse of hostel facilities’

»Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told the Council that the government would put an end to misuse of facilities in hostels set up by the Department of Social Welfare for SC/ST students.

Replying to a question by BJP member Y A Narayanaswami, the chief minister said the government was aware of the fact that the facilities were misused and the genuine students were deprived of the facilities. He promised to consider Narayanaswami’s suggestion to set up an authority to monitor the hostels.

Earlier, bringing the matter to the notice of Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya, Narayanaswami said that out of 3,884 hostels in the State, 1,230 were in bad shape and were functioning in old buildings.

‘Valiant’ effort at speaking Kannada

»Minister for Minorities’ Welfare, Wakf and Municipalities Qamar-Ul-Islam’s ‘valiant’ effort at speaking Kannada in the Council gave some comic relief to certain Opposition members.

As soon as Islam began reading his statement in broken Kannada, the Opposition members started making snide comments. Chairman D H Shankarmurthy tried to defend the minister and said: “The minister has already made a written requisition that his mistakes while speaking Kannada be excused as he is not very fluent in it.”

While most appreciated his efforts, in the end, on a serious note, JD(S) member M C Nanaiah said: “We all appreciate the efforts of Islam in trying to give the reply in Kannada. But none understood what he has spoken. Even the stenographers could not understand it, but have the support of a written statement.”

Licences cancelled

»The government has said that it has cancelled the licences of 250 FPDs for overpricing the commodities and not displaying boards with lists of available items.

In a written reply to BJP’s Raghunath Rao Malkapure, Dinesh Gundu Rao said that the government had also so far suspended licences of 350 FPDs in this connection.

In a reply to BJP member B J Puttaswamy, he said that the State had 1.31 crore BPL families and 86.97 lakh families had been given BPL cards as on July 24.
Rao said the government had distributed 11.18 lakh Antyodaya cards.

Compensation for farmers

»Congress member Siddu Nyamagouda told the Assembly that an acre of land in Bagalkot costs not less than Rs 25 lakh and the government must give adequate compensation to farmers who would be losing their land when the height of the Almatti dam is increased to 524.26 metres.

Speaking on the budget proposals in the Assembly, Nyamagouda, who represents Jamakhandi, said that about 22 villages would be submerged and nearly one lakh acres of land would be acquired for increasing the height of the dam. Already, two lakh acres of land had been acquired, he said.

Shanghai-like city

»BJP member Appachu Ranjan said the revised budget of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah lacked novelty. He said a Shanghai-like city with top-class road connectivity was coming up in Gujarat. Here too such planning should be done, Ranjan said.