Will continue Nagarotthana scheme, says Minister Sorake

Urban Development Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake said that all eight city corporations in the state would be given the third instalment of Rs100 crore each under the Chief Minister Nagarotthana Programme.

He told reporters during his maiden visit to the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad on Monday that he had already spoken to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in this regard. “We are continuing the scheme to improve infrastructure in cities,” he said.

The CM’s Nagarothana Programme was initiated during the BJP rule and so far, each city corporation was given `200 crore in two instalments. Though, the first instalment was utilised fully, the programme hit a rough patch due to the delay in releasing the second instalment. There are also complaints of corruption and poor quality works.

“We will look into the allegations before releasing the third instalment,” Sorake said when his attention was drawn towards it.

ULB Reservation After June 27

The state government is likely to announce the much-awaited reservation for the election of heads of Urban Local Bodies immediately after June 27.

Sorake said that the High Court is likely to pronounce its judgement with regard to the reservation for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Mayor’s post on June 27. Immediately after this, the state government would announce the reservation.

“Since the High Court said that all corporations should be considered as a unit, the June 27 judgement will have bearing on other corporations too. Therefore the government is forced to wait till June 27. Once it is out, we will announce the reservation. The government is ready with the reservation list of other Urban Local Bodies,” Minister Sorake replied to a query as to why the announcement of reservation for the heads of the urban local bodies which went for polls in March is being delayed.