Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai plans special programme to tackle malnutrition

Karnataka will launch a special programme to tackle malnutrition among girls and adolescents in three districts, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said Tuesday.

Children in Kalaburagi, Raichur and Yadgir districts are suffering from malnutrition. The special programme will give more importance to the children's health and education, Bommai said after chairing the quarterly Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) meeting at Vikasa Soudha.

According to data presented during the meeting, as many as 89,000 children are malnourished, underweight or stunted in Raichur, while the number is 1.26 lakh in Yadgir. The districts also had a larger percentage of low birth weight babies, prompting the government to come up with a special plan.

Administration reforms

Bommai said an an advisory committee will be constituted to implement the recommendations made by the Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission-II (KARC).

The KARC-II, headed by former chief secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar, submitted its first report in July recommending sweeping reforms that include passport-like Tatkal for faster citizen services, home delivery of ration, paperless offices and issuance of income certificates based on self-declaration. The first set of recommendations deal with Revenue, Food & Civil Supplies and Transport departments.

"Most of the recommendations will be implemented starting from November 1," Bommai said.

Bommai said that finances of the state had improved this year due to the revival in economic activity across the state. "GST collections have also improved," he said, adding that the finances of the state would improve without further disruption in economic activity due to Covid-19.

Directions were issued to all departments to ensure that new programmes announced in the budget are implemented at the earliest. Heads of all departments should also visit rural areas to ensure that the projects announced by the government reach the beneficiaries, Bommai said.

The chief minister is learnt to have pulled up departments such as Revenue, Urban Development, Education and others for large pendency in files. "I have directed them to ensure that all pending files are cleared within two months," he said.