Mangaluru, Sept 24: As many as 10 districts of Karnataka including coastal districts of Dakshina kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada will be formally declared defecation-free on October 2.
The other seven districts are Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Chikkamagaluru, Gadag, Shivamogga, Kodagu and Mandya.
According to S G Nanjayyanamath, chairman of Karnataka State Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Committee, these districts have achieved credit of being open defecation-free districts in the State. Work is on to declare the remaining districts too.
Speaking to media persons Mr. Nanjayyanamath claimed that 1,836 gram panchayats in the State have been declared open-defecation free, and on Gandhi Jayanti, 8,482 more would be added to the list. He said preparation was on to declare at least 2 or 3 more districts open defecation-free on November 1 (Karnataka Rajyotsava Day).
With regard to setting up potable water supplying units, he said 8,400 such units have been set up across the State. The process would be completed by calling tender for installing 2,500 more units. He said 1,000 additional such units would be granted to localities dominated by Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes communities. The works of these units was under way and would be completed soon, he said.
Mr. Nanjayyanamath said Rs. 54 crore had been spent from the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department for drinking water, development of roads in rural areas, and shed for cattle.
The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
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Along with declaration, punishment should be some more strict
Never going to happen
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