BENGALURU: H D Kumaraswamy’s cabinet on Monday tweaked Siddaramaiah’s grand urban housing scheme for Bengaluru’s underprivileged population, to accommodate more beneficiaries. Instead of the originally proposed ‘Ground plus three floors’, the cabinet on Monday approved ‘Ground plus fourteen floors’ for multi-storied houses under the scheme. “The idea is to accommodate more beneficiaries given the limited land available in Bengaluru,” said Krishna Byre Gowda, Law and Parliamentary affairs minister. The project will be partially funded by the state government and the union government under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, while a portion of the cost will be borne by the beneficiary.
The cabinet discussed 42 issues in detail and approved many projects including land acquisition for Peripheral Ring Road in Bengaluru. The cabinet has decided to allocate Rs 100 crore to fill 30 lakes in drought-hit Hoskote taluk using treated sewage water from Bengaluru. An engineering and polytechnic college has been approved for Hassan at the cost of Rs 19.33 crore and Rs 16.15 crore respectively. The cabinet also approved a 65-acre land to construct Indian Institute of Information Technology in Raichur with the go-ahead from the Union government.
Considering the staggering costs of organ transplant, the cabinet has proposed a scheme to help the economically weaker sections by subsidising transplant. “Suvarna Arogya trust will make recommendations casewise and also decide on the cost-sharing pattern plus eligibility of cases. With this, we aim to provide the poorest of the poor in the state access to organ transplant,” Gowda said. Given the heavy inflow of patients to Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, the cabinet has approved setting up of an additional 1,150-bed facility. The cost of the new facility is estimated at Rs 45 crore. While the state government will fund Rs 22.5 crore, the rest will be borne by Jayadeva Institute.
The cabinet also made an amendment to the Lokayukta Act to allow recusal of Lokayukta in cases of conflict of interest. While the cabinet has approved a list of existing holidays for 2019, a cabinet sub-committee has been constituted to look into matters of work hours, holiday schedule for government staff. “We have seen a lot of criticism that the number of working days have gradually reduced.
A committee will hold talks with stakeholders to decide on whether some holidays could be moved into the ‘restricted’ criteria,” Gowda said. The committee is likely to draft a new working schedule for 2020 with restricted holidays. The cabinet further has approved Rs 32.89 crore for gadgets and tabs under Smart Policing scheme for state police apart from approving a water treatment plant at Tippagondanahalli as a measure to prep it to receive water from the Yettinahole project.