Govt to take up cloud seeding over three river basins

The state Cabinet on Wednesday decided to go in for cloud seeding over Cauvery, Tungabhadra and Malaprabha basins following deficient rainfall in these pockets.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said a company “Hoysala Projects Pvt Ltd” has been selected for the project after a tendering process. The company will take up weather modification or cloud seeding using aircraft for 60 days, Jayachandra said.

When pointed out that cloud seeding, first taken up during S M Krishna’s regime and later by successive governments, had repeatedly failed to deliver results, Jayachandra said it looks like the monsoon will be dismal this year too and the government had come to the rescue of farmers.

Jayachandra said the Cabinet gave its approval for distributing milk to students studying in Class I to Class X in government and aided schools to five days a week from July 17. At present, they are getting milk three days a week. The additional expenditure is estimated to be Rs 285 crore.

In another decision, the Cabinet gave its approval for establishing five super speciality hospitals at Davangere, Kanakapura, Tumakuru, Vijayapura and Kolar at a cost of Rs 25 crore each. Besides, construction of a new operation theatre complex in Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) in Ballari at a cost of Rs 25 crore and super speciality hospitals at Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubballi and VIMS at a cost of Rs 150 crore were approved.