Just before elections, govt unearths Rs 406 crore unused LAD funds

DHNS
December 15, 2017

Bengaluru Dec 15: With Assembly elections around the corner, the state government has unearthed unutilised Local Area Development (LAD) funds amounting to Rs 406 crore in the accounts of deputy commissioners.

To use these funds, the Planning, Programme Monitoring and Statistics department on Thursday announced a new scheme - Sidda Sarkarada Nade Sevegala Kade. Under this, the unused funds will be spent on construction of classrooms, to provide basic infrastructure at government hospitals and build anganwadis.

"These are Karnataka Legislators' Local Area Development Scheme funds from 2002 to 2013 that were unused and lying in the accounts of deputy commissioners," Minister for Planning M R Seetharam said. It was for the first time such a huge amount of unused LAD funds have been discovered, Seetharam stressed. "Legislators no longer have control on these funds since they have lapsed."

Of the Rs 406 crore, the Education department has been given Rs 243 crore for construction or repair of 2,719 classrooms in government schools; Rs 122 crore for the Health department to provide basic infrastructure at 309 government hospitals; Rs 40 crore to the Women & Child development department to construct 346 anganwadis.

"Our department will monitor the use of these funds. Deputy commissioners have been directed to ensure that the funds are used before the end of this financial year," he said.

According to the minister, officials have been asked to finish works 90 days from the date of contract (tender). "We have asked officials to submit progress reports once in 15 days," he said.

The highest unspent amount was found in Uttara Kannada district (Rs 35 crore), whereas Gadag had the lowest unspent money (Rs 3 crore). "Not a single legislator has utilised 100% LAD funds," Seetharam said.

From 2013 till September 2017, a total of Rs 1,000 crore released under the LAD scheme remain unspent. Another Rs 300 crore are yet to be released, Seetharam explained.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 19,2020

Mangaluru/Mysuru, May 19: Though the Karnataka government permitted the private buses, operators in Dakshina Kannada district have decided not to operate buses until May end. In Mysuru district too the private buses remained off the roads.

Dakshina Kannada Bus Owners’ Association President Dilraj Alva said “Technically, private bus operators are not able to operate services as all of us have surrendered our permits. If we start services we will have to pay the tax for entire month. Hence, we have decided to resume bus services from June 1.”

The private buses had suspended their services since March 24.

In addition, bus owners also have two more demands which the state government needs to consider on priority, he said.

“We have requested the government to exempt private buses from paying tax for the next six months. We were not plying buses during lockdown and it will be tough for us in the next three months to operate as per new conditions.”

“The government has allowed only 30 persons in each bus to maintain social distancing. In addition, we have been urging the state government for bus fare revision since 2013. The government has revised the bus fares of KSRTC twice after that,” Alva said adding that bus owners will be meeting Mangaluru RTO on Tuesday.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 5,2020

The Department of Preuniversity Education, Karnataka has declared the board exams or pre university I exam results. To get results online, the students need to log on to result.bspucpa.com and have to provide their registration number and date of birth. 
Apart from the online portal, the students will get the results via mail or SMS.

“The results of the first year Pre-University Examinations will be announced on May 5. The results will be sent directly to students. Hence, colleges will not be displaying the results,” said S Suresh Kumar, Primary and Secondary Education Minister. 

The pre-university course of PUC is a two-year course including class 11 and class 12 called PUC I and PUC II. It is based on PUC score that candidates can get admission to varsities.

Earlier, the Karnataka PUC 1 result was to be announced on March 27 which was postponed and hence the revised dates are announced now.

The board exam results have been put on halt due to the nation-wide lockdown imposed after the coronavirus pandemic gripped India. As of May 3, the number of people infected by the coronavirus in India had crossed over 40,000.

The HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had in a meeting asked state and central boards to resume their evaluation process and declare the results to curb any further delay in the academic cycle. The academic cycle has been delayed by over a month due to the coronavirus. Now, the colleges will start by September instead of July.

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News Network
June 4,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 4: The Special Investment Promotion Task Force, constituted by the Karnataka government, held its first meeting in Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru on Wednesday, June 3.

The first meeting of the task force was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary, Karnataka government.

The body is seeking to find ways to attract the disenchanted multi-national corporations (MNCs) which are looking to shift their manufacturing base away from China in the back-drop of the COVID-19 outbreak.

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