Bangalore, Sept 26, 2013, DHNS:
The State Cabinet on Thursday gave its nod for the upgrading Shimoga, Tumkur and Bijapur City Municipal Councils (CMCs) to city corporations.
Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said the CMCs will be get the status of corporations as their population has crossed the three-lakh mark as per the 2011 census.
The presidents and vice-presidents of the CMCs will don the role of mayor and deputy mayor and the members will become corporators. The government will provide a grant of Rs 100 crore for each of the corporations, he said. With the upgrading of the CMCs, the total number of corporations in the state will rise to 11. The State government, in the next six months, will also decide whether these three urban bodies should be dissolved and fresh elections held.
The Cabinet also decided to provide a subsidy of Rs two lakh for 2,000 unemployed youths from backward classes and minority communities to purchase tourist taxis.
Policy on medical colleges
Jayachandra said the Cabinet decided to come out with a policy to ensure that new medical colleges come up in the backward areas of the state. This is to prevent concentration of new medical colleges in and around Bangalore. A Cabinet sub-committee will frame the policy soon, he said.
The Cabinet also took a serious note of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences for recommending clearance for four private medical colleges, despite not having fulfilled the guidelines of the Medical Council of India (MCI). Jayachandra said the government will write to the proposers of the colleges including Mookabimka Trust, East Point Medical College and Lalithambika Medical College to fulfil the MCI guidelines first and then apply for approval.
The Cabinet gave its nod for the third phase of the Sustainable Forest Management and Biodiversity Conservation programme to bring about ecological restoration and also to facilitate livelihood improvement of the inhabitants of the project villages by afforestation through Joint Forest Planning and Management.
The third phase of the programme will be implemented with the assistance of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) at a cost of Rs 1,899 crore.
Hyderabad-Karnataka
After the Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and members of the Cabinet committee on implementation of Article 371(J) in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region met and discussed modalities to ensure that rules to implement the provision of providing reservation in employment and education in the region is legally water-tight.
