The State government has issued an order banning drilling of borewells in 35 taluks of the State, following over-exploitation of the water table in these places.

The Karnataka Groundwater Development: Control and Management Act, 2010, came into effect last month and sinking borewells has been banned in the following taluks:

The 1,000-km pipeline will feed industries at Belgaum, Dharwad, Gadag, Bellary, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Tumkuyr, Ramanagaram & Bengaluru

State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd today commissioned a Rs 4,500 crore pipeline carrying gas from the just operationalised Dabhol LNG terminal into Bengaluru that promises to change the energy landscape of the region. The 1,000-km pipeline will feed industries at Belgaum, Dharwad, Gadag, Bellary, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Tumkuyr, Ramanagaram and Bengaluru which have till now been using costlier and polluting liquid fuels like naphtha and diesel as feedstock.

“Where there is a will, there is a way”, goes the adage. It has come true in case of farmers of Krishna belt in Bagalkot district. The farmers in Jamkhandi taluk, suffering huge losses due to the shortage of water to the sugarcane crop, have come together and completed within a fortnight a huge project of lifting 1 TMCFT of water from downstream backwaters of the Almatti dam to upstream on River Krishna and storing it in Chikkapadasalagi barrage for summer.

Without waiting for the government, the farmers under the banner of ‘Krishna Teera Raitha Sangha’ mobilised funds, labour and material on their own and completed the task they had taken up as a challenge.

District principal and sessions judge K. Ninge Gowda has said that as health of the mother plays a critical role in determining the health of the newborn, utmost care should be given to her to prevent malnourishment among infants.

He was speaking after launching the Belgaum divisional-level multimedia campaign to create awareness on malnourishment in 140 villages of Basavanabagewadi taluk of the district, here on Thursday. The campaign has been taken up by the Information Department and the Legal Services Authority.

BELGAUM: Undeterred by Goa government’s efforts to seek a stay on the Kalsa-Bandura project, Karnataka Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar on Wednesday said his government will make every effort to complete and implement the water diversion project at the earliest.

He was reacting to a question on the water levels in the Malaprabha River, where Karnataka is seeking to divert water from the controversial Kalsa-Bhandura project.

The solar power sector is gaining momentum in Karnataka ever since the government introduced a solar energy policy (2011-16). The government has recently concluded a bid process, in which 80 Mw (60 Mw for solar PV and 20 Mw for solar thermal) was allotted to developers at tariffs between Rs 7.94 to Rs 8.50 per unit for solar PV and Rs 10.94 and Rs 11.32 per unit for solar thermal projects.

According to a report Renewable Energy prepared by PwC, which was released at the conference on ‘sustainable energy through renewables’, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here on Wednesday, Karnataka is the only state to have supported solar projects under the REC (Renewable Energy Certificate) mechanism.

The Union Ministry of Rural Development has sanctioned two projects worth Rs 21.5 crore, under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, for Karnataka.

Both projects are aimed at empowering rural women and will be implemented through NGOs, with active involvement of the state government. The State Genetic Resources Ecology and Nutrition Foundation (Green Foundation) has been selected for implementation of the project in Chitradurga and Ramanagara districts. The project, with an estimated cost of Rs 6.5 crore, is expected to benefit around 5,000 women.

The State government has conceived a plan to help children of parents with HIV/AIDS. The new programme aims to give the children access to financial assistance for education and other expenses till the age of 18, regardless of their economic background.

One condition to obtain the benefits, however, is that parents should disclose their HIV/AIDS status. Drawn up by the Department of Women and Child Development, with technical support from the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT), the programme has been in effect from the 2011-12 financial year and already covers 15 districts.

BELGAUM: After strong resent to the proposed by-pass connecting Panjim-Belgaum NH4A to Halga, it is now the turn of proposed Hyderabad-Panjim bypass.

After getting news of the implementation of this new by-pass connecting the NH4A to Hyderabad road, farmers in the region have organised themselves against the proposed by-pass citing loss of fertile land.

As many as 80 residents of Sambra village in Belgaum taluk were taken ill after they drank contaminated water on Saturday.

It is said that the water in the borewell and overhead tank in the village, the main sources of drinking water, were contaminated resulting in people falling ill. Of the 80 people, 22 including women and children, who suffered vomiting and diarrhoea, have been admitted to district hospital in Belgaum. A few are recuperating in their houses after receiving treatment at the hospital while others are being treated in private hospitals.