The State Department of Energy wants to raise around Rs 55 crore annually by imposing the cess to supplement the RE projects. The State government extends many subsidies and concessions for taking up the RE generation projects.

RE gets industry tag

The policy recognises the RE sector as an industry in order to smoothen the process of land acquisition for the projects. The policy has set a target of generating 4,000 MW of RE in five years and make Karnataka the number one state in RE generation. Thrust has been given to wind, biomass and solar energy.

More importantly, the Cabinet decided to set up an expert committee headed by the Chief Secretary to ensure that all RE projects get necessary clearances from the Centre soon.

Lokayukta Act

The Cabinet gave consent to amend the Section 22 of Karnataka Lokayukta Act 1985, changing the format for legislators and ministers to declare their assets before the Lokayukta. This is one of the 21 amendments that the Lokayukta has proposed to the Government. With this, legislators and ministers need not give details of petty items like cattle, furniture and electronic goods in the declaration. They only need to disclose their assets with respect to land, bank balance, jewellery and others.

The Government had kept this amendment pending for three years despite the fact that it does not affect any elected representatives.

Cow slaughter

The Cabinet set up a sub-committee headed by Home Minister V S Acharya to re-draft a bill that seeks to ban cow slaughter in the State.

Horticulture Varsity Bill

The Cabinet also approved the Horticulture Science University Bill. It decided to replace a proposed ordinance to set up the Azim Premji University with a Bill.

Vajpayee health scheme

Other decisions included renaming of Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Yojane as the Vajpayee Arogya Sri, setting up an IT park in Gulbarga, and allotting nine acres of land near Mysore to Rastrothana Parishat, Bangalore.