Govt sticks to stand, says open space area to be reduced

Decides to send amendment Bill back to Governor Vajubhai Vala who had raised concerns over the effect on environment and traffic

BENGALURU: The state government has decided to send back to the Governor the Karnataka Urban Development Authorities (amendment) Bill, which seeks to reduce the area of open space and parks in new layouts.

The government took the decision at a cabinet meeting here on Wednesday. The governor had sought clarifications on reduction in space to 10 per cent from the existing 15 per cent in layouts developed by the Urban Development Department. The Bill, which was passed in the legislature in July, was sent back by Governor Vajubhai Vala, who had raised concern over its effect on the environment and traffic.
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra said they had reiterated the point and explained they were bringing parity with the private layouts. “Private layouts have to allocate only 10 per cent for open spaces, while in the ones developed by us, it is 15 per cent. We do not have demand for the layouts being developed by us. Space is at a premium and we are suffering losses and we decided to bring parity between the two. Hence, we have reduced the area,” he said.
On being asked why they did not consider increasing the open space area to be allocated in private layouts to 15 per cent, Jayachandra said it was discussed, but they decided on the earlier idea to keep the costs of developing layouts down.

The government has also decided to allocate `396.72 crore towards voluntary retirement scheme and severance package for the 2,200 employees of Mysore Paper Mills in Bhadravathi.  “We have already suffered losses to the extent of `700 crore. But if we do not encourage employees to take up the settlement package, we will not be able to proceed on the privatisation process either.”
Based on the opinion of the Advocate General, the cabinet has approved sharing of information about the 200 MW hydro-electric power project in Shivanasamudra. Since Karnataka is in the midst of an ongoing dispute with Tamil Nadu over the sharing of Cauvery waters, information about the project being executed by the Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd will be shared with Tamil Nadu and with the Supervisory Committee monitoring the sharing of waters.

Amount enhanced
The Cabinet has also approved the enhancement of welfare amount for claims made by lawyers under the Karnataka Advocates Welfare Fund Act, 1983. For retirement and death claims of practising advocates, the amounts have been enhanced. For those practising for less than 15 years, the welfare amount has been increased from `2 lakh to `4 lakh; for those who have been practicing between 15 to 35 years, the amount has been increased from `3 lakh to `6 lakh and those who have been practising for more than 35 years are entitled to benefits amounting to `8 lakh from the existing `4 lakh.  
The Cabinet, meanwhile, has rejected the demand of clerks and officials of the High Court to be paid on par with Central government employees. The officials had wanted their salaries to be in accordance with the Fifth Pay Commission. Based on the opinion of the Advocate General, these officials and clerks will continue to receive salaries on par with state government employees.

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