From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Oct 3: People of villages around Karkala in Udupi district will be getting drinking water supplies from Yennehole.
The State Cabinet, which met under chief minister B S Yediyurappa in the chair, at its meeting held in Vidhana Soudha on Thursday, decided to approve the Yennehole project at an estimated cost of Rs 108 crore.
The project will provide drinking water and also provide irrigation facilities.
The state cabinet decided to release Rs 40 crore for the project this year.
Briefing reporters on the decisions taken at a cabinet meeting, law and parliamentary affairs minister J C Madhuswamy said the lift irrigation project would benefit thousands of people residing in and around Karkala taluk.
The project was mooted by Karkala BJP MLA Sunil Kumar.
The minister said the state cabinet decided to install railway barricades to the extent of 118 km in various forest areas of the state. A sum of Rs 110 crore would be spent on erecting the railway barricades this year. Railway lines passing through elephant habitats have led to numerous accidents and the death of elephants in different districts of the state.
He said railway barricades would be erected to the extent of 24 km in Nagarahole National Park and Tiger Reserve, 17 kms in Bandipur National Park, 15 kms in Kollegal forest reserve, 6 kms in Ramagnaram, 15s km in Bannerghatta National Park, 19 kms in Madikeri, 3 kms in Virajpet, 13 kms in Male Mahadeshwara-Kollegal, and 6 kms in Hassan district.
It was a three-year project with an estimated expenditure of Rs 628 crore for 517 km railway barricades. A sum of Rs 1.20 crore would be spent per km, Madhuswamy said.
He said the cabinet decided to give a monthly increase of Rs 500 as honorarium to ASHA health workers from Rs 6,000 to Rs 6,500. There are about 41,425 ASHA activists and the additional amount would cost the state exchequer Rs 25 crore a year.
The state government was contributing Rs 4,000 in the Rs 6,500 monthly honorarium and rest by the centre.
For providing notebooks and stationary items for schoolchildren of residential schools, the cabinet provided administrative approval for Rs 26.26 crore.
On the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the cabinet has decided to release 20 prisoners showing good conduct.
The State government would recommend to the state Governor Vajubhai Vala for the release of prisoners.
He said Rs 12 crore would be released for 41 blood banks across the State; Rs28.9 crore for construction of a 100-bed hospital at Jamakhandi in Bagalakote under National Health Mission and Rs 14 crore for the development of tanks at Suganahalli in Shirahatti in Gadag.