Proposal on Pilikula Devt Authority will be placed before Cabinet: Seetharam

The proposal towards the establishment of Pilikula Development Authority will be tabled before the upcoming Cabinet meeting, said Planning and Statistics, Science and Technology Minister M R Seetharam.

He was speaking after reviewing the work at Swami Vivekananda 3D planetarium in Pilukula and performing the ground breaking for Vamanjoor-Pilikula road development works on Thursday.

The Authority will function as an autonomous body. Currently, the funds for various units of the Nisargadhama are channelised from departments such as Science and Technology, Animal Husbandry, Forest and Horticulture.

Opening by January

The minister said, "The planetarium will be a first-of-its-kind in India, with an Opto Mechanical – 8K Digital Projection Active 3D. It is likely to be inaugurated by the chief minister in the end of January. This is his third visit to the project site. "Till date, Rs 35.69 crore has been spent on the planetarium. "The installation of Nanoseam Fabrication is 80% done. Work on acoustics is also undertaken simultaneously. The ground-breaking ceremony for the planetarium was done on 2010-11."

Seetharam stated that the objective is to increase scientific temperament and boost tourism in the region. "Permanent staff will be recruited for planetarium soon. The application process is on and 72 applications have been received so far," he added.

DC Sasikanth Senthil, ADC Kumar, Science and Technology Department director Honnegowda, Pilikula Regional Science Centre executive director Prof K V Rao and Infovision Technologies Pvt Ltd engineer (Projects) Satish Joshi were present.

Road work

Seetharam performed the ground-breaking ceremony of the development of Vamanjoor- Pilkula road on Thursday. The concretisation will be carried out at Rs 4.95 crore, from Vamanjoor junction to Nisargadhama Main entrance.

MLA J R Lobo said that the state government had initially allotted Rs 26 crore. But, as the costs escalated to Rs 36 crore, the government released 10 crore more. Road development work gets Rs five crore while the work on the internal roads of Nisargadhama gets an additional Rs 2 crore.

BJP leaders agitate

During the ground-breaking programme, BJP leaders staged a protest near the venue, waving black flags.

They alleged that Corporator Hemalatha was not invited to the programme. The violation of protocol was deliberate as she is from BJP, the protestors said and opposed the move of the administration.