Animal Husbandry and district in-charge Minister Prabhu Chavan, responding to Congress MLA Sharanabasappa Gouda Darshanapur, said that it is possible for officials concerned to act against vehicles carrying sand beyond the permitted level and instructed Deputy Commissioner R. Ragapriya, Superintendent of Police C.B. Vedamurthy and officials of other departments who are responsible for preventing illegal sand extraction and overloading to take immediate legal action against those involved in such activity and show their efficiency.
Earlier, the MLA highlighted the “inability” of officials to take action against overloaded sand vehicles that are causing damage to roads in Yadgir district. He said that it has become “highly impossible” for these officials, including those from the Home Department, to prevent this menace.
Apart from this, several issues, including insufficient infrastructure in schools being run by the Government, lack of interest in repairing reverse osmosis plants and reaching compensation to families of farmers who committed suicide due to agrarian crisis and crop loss, came up for discussion during the Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) meeting in Yadgir on Monday.
Mr. Darshanapur said that the Education Department has been completely neglected by the Government as it has released just ₹5.50 crore to take up infrastructure works. This is meagre when compared to other districts. “You can call a meeting of the district administration and approach the Government for additional grants exclusively for the Education Department to ensure quality education and good basic infrastructure,” he told the Minister.
Officials of the Agriculture Department said that a total of 39 farmers had committed suicide and compensation has been released to 25 of the families, while five claims were rejected and forensics report is still pending in nine cases.
Hearing this, Mr. Darshanapur criticised the officers and said that “it is your duty to approach them with compensation without any delay whatsoever.”
Do you want the victim’s family to approach you to get compensation? When will you get the forensics report? What is the procedure to take forward such issues for relief?“ he asked. Intervening, the Minister asked the officials to complete the formalities and release compensation immediately.
Education Department officials said that five new buildings have been constructed for high schools and they are ready for use. However, inauguration is yet to be done due to technical reasons that should be sorted by the Kalyan Karnataka Region Development Board. They said that 2,150 buildings are in need of repairs. They further said that 2,316 posts (41.57% ) in government-run schools are vacant against the actual sanctioned 5,571 posts.
And, Mr. Darshanapur requested the Minister not to withdraw plans to set up PU colleges at Malagatti and Bendebembali villages as they have been shifted citing that these colleges have recorded zero admissions in the last two years. Mr. Darshnapur further said that there have been no admissions because of COVID-19 and not any other reason.
Member of Legislative Council B.G. Patil, CADA Chairman Sharanappa Talwar, CMC Chairman Vilas Patil, Deputy Commissioner R, Ragapriya, Superintendent of Police C.B. Vedamurthy, Additional Deputy Commissioner Shankaragowda Somnal and others were present.
