JOIN USRevenue Minister V Sreenivas Prasad said on Wednesday that the government would create no less than 40 new taluks in the State later this year.
The minister, while interacting with reporters in the Vidhana Soudha, said the government had not dumped the decision of the previous government to create new taluks. He said the government was in the process of adding a few more taluks to the list of 43 new taluks proposed during the previous regime.
“We are ready to carve out new taluks. The Jagadish Shettar government’s proposals of the taluks were ad hoc. While some were recommended by the committees set up for the purpose, others were added in an ad hoc manner. We will have to filter them out and create the taluks,” said the minister.
According to Prasad, the biggest challenges in creating new taluks are the monetary and infrastructure facilities required for these taluks. The department has already identified the infrastructure problems and is trying to address them.
The amendment to the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, pertaining to regularising illegal constructions on revenue land in urban areas, would come up before the Legislative Council in the next session. It has already been passed by the Assembly.
Prasad said that the government had placed before the Centre a demand for Rs 326 crore, to provide relief to farmers who had lost crops due to hailstorms in North Karnataka.
Compensation may be given at Rs 25,000 per hectare of crop loss. Horticulture crops on 11,400 hectares in the State are estimated to have been destroyed.
The government is likely to announce Rs 40,000 compensation for every hectare of horticulture crop lost in the State.