BENGALURU: With the monsoon playing truant, the cabinet on Wednesday asked the chief secretary to convene a meeting of deputy commissioners for evolving a plan to provide drinking water in drought affected areas.
Law and parliamentary affairs minister T.B. Jayachandra told the media that though heavy rain lashed some parts of Karnataka, some taluks were reeling under sever deficiency.
So far, only seven taluks have received excess rain, while 64 taluks recorded normal rain. In over 105 taluks, people were facing acute shortage of drinking water. With the cabinet sub-committee scheduled to meet next week, the chief secretary has been asked to take up immediate action for recharging the water supply system, with Rs 200 crores earmarked for the purpose, he added.
Meanwhile, the cabinet decided to retain the norms set by the Union government to provide financial assistance for construction of toilets under ‘Swachh Bharat’ scheme. The Union government would provide Rs 4,000 for every house while the state’s contribution would be Rs 1,333 for those intending to construct toilets in their houses.
In the wake of government facing problems to renovate the buildings within Cubbon Park limits, the state government has decided to exclude all these buildings from limits of the park.
They include Vidhana Soudha, Legislators’ Home, Karnataka High Court, all the government buildings along Nrupathunga road like RBI, and office of DG&IGP. Thus, the total area of Cubbon Park would shrink from 192.1 acres to 100 acres.
Sources in the cabinet said the original size of Cubbon Park was 100 acres. However, it was extended to 192.1 acres, including some of the surrounding areas. Now, the boundary of the park was revised to pave way for renovation of government buildings within park premises. The new boundary would remain as Queen’s road in the north, Nrupathunga road in the south, Kasturaba road in east and Pete road in west.
