Bangalore: Siddaramaiah convenes high-level meeting on water crisis
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, May 26: With people of Bangalore and several other districts suffering a serious drinking water problem, the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has convened a high-level meeting of all district deputy commissioners and chief executive officers of zilla parishads on Monday.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Unique Identification Authority of India Chairman Nandan Nilekani in Bangalore on Sunday, the chief minister said he would hold the meeting with Deputy Commissioners and Chief Executive Officers of all districts to chalk out an action plan to tackle the crisis.
A large number of villages, towns and cities, including Bangalore and Mysore, have been facing severe drinking water problem on account of depletion of water in various reservoirs in the State.
Karnataka’s Water Resources Minister M B Patil, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister H K Patil andall MLAs from Bangalore and Minister for Municipalities and Local Bodies, Public Enterprises and Minorities Welfare Qamar-ul Islam would attend the meeting, the chief minister said.
Siddaramaiah said the State Government has released Rs. 40 crore to urban local bodies to take steps to arrange for drinking water supply till the onset of the monsoon.
The chief minister also discussed various problems faced by the people, particularly in Bangalore, in enrollment centres of Aadhaar with UDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani.
The process of enrolment for the unique identification numbers under Aadhaar has been marred with glitches. Long queues and absence of qualified staff led to delay in the enrollment across several centres.
As many as 412 enrolment centres in Bangalore run by four private agencies have not kept pace with the spike in demand for Aadhaar numbers or cards.
The Chief Minister said more centres would be opened in Bangalore to expedite the enrolment process by this year-end.
The Government officials were seriously concerned about the project has not been scaled up in Bangalore and even existing centres continue to run with a limited number of enrolment stations.
The UIDAI has decided to implement direct cash transfer scheme in Mysore and Tumkur districts on a pilot basis.
Naxal Attack in Chattisgarh Condemned
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Chief Minister storngly condemned the killing of 27 people in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh and urged the Centre to take steps to contain naxal attacks in that State and other parts of the country.
Heavily-armed Maoists ambushed a convoy of Congress leaders in Chattisgarh’s Bastar district on Saturday, killing 27 people including senior Congress leader Mahendra Karma and injuring 32 others including senior Congress leader V C Shukla.
“Playing with the lives people is not good. I am totally against violence and killings and strongly condemn such incidents. I hope the central government will take serious action in the matter,” the chief minister said.
The state government has taken all precautionary measures and sounded alert in coastal and malnad districts to prevent naxal attack, Siddharamaiah said.
Union Minister for Tourism and Subodh Kant Sahay said the Raman Singh-led BJP Government stands exposed for its claim for containing Naxal violence in Chhattisgarh following the killing of 27 people in Saturday’s Maoist attack.
The claims of BJP Government of containing Naxal violence in the state stands exposed following the killing of 27 people in Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh, said Sahay, who is also the Ranchi MP.
The Union minister had a meeting with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at the latter’s official residence “Krishna” here.
Sahay hit out at the Chhattisgarh Government for intelligence failure as it did not have any information on the Maoist attack.
“It is a serious matter that it did not have intelligence on the movement of 200 to 300 Maoists and total negligence on the part of the state government,” he said.