From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Mar 29: With summer hotting up and worsening of drinking water supply situation, the state government has released Rs 40 lac each to all the assembly constituencies in the five districts of Kolar, Chikballapur, Tumkur, Chamarajangar and Bangalore Rural.
Funds have been released to 171 rural assembly constituencies in Karnataka at Rs 15 lac each while the assembly constituencies in the five districts facing severe drinking water problem have been given Rs 40 lac each, Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Jagadish Shettar said.
Talking to reporters, he said the state government has released a sum of Rs 31.65 crore to tackle the drinking water supply problem
The district authorities have been instructed to utilise funds for repair old borewells, install new pump sets at borewells, drill new boreweslls and revive surface water sources.
Authorities have also been directed supply drinking water through tankers in the wake of severe shortage of water in villages and towns, Shettar said.
He said Task Forces headed by the MLAs of the respective assembly constituencies have been constituted to prepare plans to address the drinking water problems.
The department has also issued guidelines on the functioning of task forces. The power utilities have been instructed not to disrupt power to ensure regular supply of water to various tanks, he said.
Deshmukh favours change of PMGSY Guidelines
The Minister said he had called on Union Minister for Rural Development Vilasrao Deshmukh at Delhi a few days ago and appealed to him clear a Sate’s proposal for upgradation of 4,000 km road network under the Pradan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana involving a financial outlay of Rs. 1400 crore.
The former Union Minister C P Joshi had rejected the proposal submitted earlier stating that the funds would not be sanctioned for upgradation of roads under the PMGSY.
However, Shettar said Deshmukh responded positively and said that there was a need to change the guidelines under the PMGSY to allow states to take up road upgradation works.
Meanwhile, the state government has decided to develop 20 km of roads in each Assembly constituency under the Mukhya Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana, he said.
Tenders have been finalized and work orders have been issued to develop roads by spending Rs. 28 lac per km road under the scheme, he said.
Karnataka utilised barely 50 % of MGREGS Funds
Shettar said Karnataka has been able to utilise just about 50 per cent of the funds sanctioned under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGREGS) in 2010-11 and explained that the failure to fully utilise the grants was on account of various reasons.
About Rs. 2000 crore had been spent against the allocation of Rs. 4,000 crore by the Centre in the current fiscal year. The scheme was being implemented in all districts of the state.
In 2009-10 too, the state government was able to spend about Rs 2200 crore, he said.
Corruption, irregularities, fake job cards and inefficiency in the execution of works led to less utiliation of funds under the job scheme, the minister explained.
A survey conducted by the department has found 12 lac fake job cards across the state.
Currently, 52.39 lac job cards had been issued, which included 9.25 lac cards for scheduled caste families, 4.50 lac for scheduled tribe families and 38.63 lac cards for others, he added.