‘Govt to frame policy for PG accommodations, homestays’

The urban development department is mulling over framing a policy for the functioning of the paying guest accommodations and homestays in urban areas, District In-Charge Minister U T Khader said. Speaking to mediapersons here, on Wednesday, Khader said the PG accommodations did not have any set of rules and regulations so far. The department officials and legal experts are working on drafting a policy.

“Though tourism department had framed a policy for homestays, we are working on a policy for functioning of the homestays in urban areas,” he said. The policy will have details on the number of students/guests who can be accommodated in a PG accommodation, security aspects, distance from the road for PG accommodation and restricted areas for operating PG accommodations and so on. All the loopholes in the present PG accommodation system will be plugged through the policy.

Online property tax

Urban local bodies (ULBs) will do away with manual payment of property tax. All property owners have to pay property tax through the online portal — e-aasthi — either by visiting a nearby urban local body office or on their own.

Payment of tax, transfer of khatas and other property-related work would be done only through online. This will ensure transparency in property tax collection. In the beginning, online property tax payment and online transfer of khatas will be introduced in all the 10 city corporations in the state.

No trimming of holiday

Clarifying that the state government had not taken any decision on scrapping holiday for Eid, Good Friday, Mahalaya Amavasye and others, he said public need not worry over it. Only the proposal is submitted on rejig of holiday calendar of government employees. The state government has not taken any decision in this regard. The government will always consider the suggestions and opinion of the people while taking a decision, he added.

Water crisis

To a query on rationing of water supply in Mangaluru, Khader said the rationing would be continued and the water-level was being monitored daily by the officials.

“I have directed officials to earmark additional water tankers to supply water to the wards.”

On state government’s direction to offer special puja in all the Muzrai temple propitiating rain god, he said if prayers were offered sincerely, God would bless the mankind.

The minister said that a meeting to discuss on the unscientific Thokkottu flyover and service roads would be held at DC’s office on June 7 at 5 pm.

The meeting will be attended by MP, MLAs and officials. It will discuss on the possible solution to check accidents on Thokkottu flyover.

Meeting today

District In-charge Minister U T Khader said that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had convened a meeting on Thursday, to discuss on the issue of more number of students who had sought admission in government english medium schools.

The state government had restricted the number of admissions in the schools, were English medium had been introduced from Class I, to 30 and to shift the excess students to Kannada medium.