Pouring cold water on Karnataka’s face, the Empowered Group of Ministers on Drought has asked to scale down “huge” fiancial demand from the Centre and come up with a realistic proposal outlining specific requisitions on short term and long term plans.

Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar held a a two-hour-long meeting with Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and his cabinet colleagues besides officials in the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore on Thursday.

Garbage disposal poses health risks to residents of Tippenahalli

Residents of Tippenahalli near Lakshmipura lake wake up to stench and smoke every morning. The area, located a few kilometres from the Peenya Industrial Area, has been turned into a dump yard by industries, hospitals, research organisations, hotels and marriage halls. The NICE Ring Road between Magadi Road Junction and Jindal, cuts across the place. The lake is one side of the road and Tippenahalli lies on the other side.

ICONSWM-2012 concludes at Infosys

Echoing the statements of Union Minister of State for Urban Development Saugata Roy, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner M K Shankarlingegowda reiterated that the country still lacked an efficient waste to energy conversion plant. He was speaking at the valedictory of the third international conference on solid waste management ‘ICONSWM-2012’ at the N R Narayana Murthy Centre of Excellence here on Wednesday.

Station director of Akashavani lauds role of radio in imparting awareness among masses

Former secretary to forest and environment department A N Yellappa Reddy said, including Western Ghats to UNESCO’s world heritage list would be apt, as most of the forest is already destroyed in the name of progress. He was speaking at an interaction programme on ‘role of media in developmental process’ here on Tuesday. He said, encroaching forest land for the purpose is not development. Among 45,000 applications pending at the Centre for permission for mining, 19,000 belongs to Karnataka.

24x7 operational control room helps in tackling public grievances

Implementing a global positioning system (GPS) based municipal solid waste transportation has led to saving of more than 48 per cent running cost and increased efficiency by 88 per cent for the Mysore City Corporation (MCC). The statistics on effect of GPS was revealed by Kallatra Technologies director Nishad Ali and project manager B S Vishwanath at the ongoing third international conference on solid waste management ‘ICONSWM-2012’ at the N R Narayana Murthy Centre of Excellence here on Tuesday.

Mobility India manager S N Anand said that it has planned to construct 1,000 toilets for members of specially-abled association and 250 have already been constructed.

He was speaking at a programme organised to distribute revolving fund to specially-abled at Chandakavadi in Chamarajanagar taluk recently. In order to encourage specially-abled to become self employed, he said Rs 2.5 lakh revolving fund is being distributed in Haradanahalli and Chandakavadi areas. Beneficiaries need to make use of the funds, he added.

Plans state-of-the-art lab costing Rs 50 lakh to test suspected cases

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will reach out to 20 lakh people in the next 10 days as part of its dengue awareness drive. It will also set up a laboratory on the lines of National Institute of Virology at a cost of Rs 50 lakh. Three ‘rapid test/cross test’ units will also be set up in the City. Replying to allegations by the Opposition parties that the Palike had failed to contain the spread of dengue, at the monthly Council meeting on Tuesday, BBMP Commissioner M K Shankarlinge Gowda admitted to the lapse and said he did not expect the disease to spread so fast.

The families who will be affected with GAIL pipeline project between Kochi and Mangalore have formed Kochi-Mangalore Gaspipeline Santhrastara Horata Kriya Samithi and have clarified that they will not give up their land even if the authorities pay highest amount for the land.

Addressing a press meet here on Tuesday, Rajaram Bhat of the samithi said that the Central government and Supreme Court has given guidelines for acquiring land for development work. However, the GAIL authorities have sidelined the guidelines and have started the acquisition process.

With lesser number of sites available, many allottees fear losing sites

The controversy surrounding the Arkavathy Layout refuses to die with the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) announcing that only 14,000 sites were available for the allottees and the farmers from the 16 villages where land had been acquired for the layout in 2003. Tuesday’s High Court ruling has forced BDA to provide developed land to farmers who parted with their land, provided they return the compensation money.

The State government has suspended 40 officials and issued show cause notices to 257 others who have been named in Lokayukta report on illegal mining, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.

Responding to a question byTanveer Sait (Congress), he said show cause notices have been issued to five IAS officers and one IPS officer, and disciplinary action has been taken against three officials of Mysore Minerals Ltd. Besides, 66 officials have been transferred from Bellary district as recommended in the report.