Bangalore, Aug 15, 2013:Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said his government will accord importance for the industrial and infrastructure development along with implementing schemes and programmes aimed at ensuring social justice for the poor and downtrodden sections of society.
Delivering his Independence Day speech at the Field Marshal Manekshaw parade ground here, he said the government will organise Global Investors’ Meet next year after unveiling the new industrial policy. Recommendations of the IT Group will be implemented to increase the quantum of exports in the IT sector from Rs 1.35 lakh crore to Rs 4 lakh crore, he added.
Development of arterial and sub-arterial roads in Bangalore will be taken up at a cost of Rs 300 crore. Besides, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has agreed to lend Rs 2,250 crore to the State take up the long-pending peripheral ring road project around Bangalore, he said.
Metro phase-II
He said that phase-I of Namma Metro will be completed by March 2015. Siddaramaiah said the preliminary work for phase-II such as geo-technical investigations and land acquisitions have progressed considerably. The phase-II is estimated to cost Rs 26,405 crore, he added.
In his 11-page speech, the chief minister, however, did not reveal the future plans of his government in view of the model code of conduct for byelections to two parliamentary and three legislative council seats.
He made it a point to allege that the previous BJP governments had derailed the administration.
Siddaramaiah said Independence Day will be meaningful only when political freedom coupled with economic independence reaches everyone.
‘Encroachment’
Siddaramaiah said a high-level committee headed by chief secretary S V Ranganath had been set up to recommend to the government steps needed to be taken to recover encroached government lands based on the findings of the A T Ramaswamy and Balasubramanian reports.
The committee will study these reports and soon submit a report to the government. Steps are being taken to protect government lands. Fencing of government lands has been taken up, he added.
The Karnataka Legislature recently referred a breach of privilege motion against former bureaucrat Balasubramanian to the Privilege Committee. Senior Congress MLA Ramesh Kumar had moved a privilege motion against the bureaucrat in the Assembly for allegedly accusing MLAs of encroaching forest land. Members of all political parties too had supported the motion.
Balasubramanian, as the head of the then task force for recovery of government, had subsequently indicated that he would take legal action against any move to summon him before the Privileges Committee. As per the task report, over 11 lakh acres of government land valued approximately at Rs 1.95 lakh crore are under encroachment, which, according to him, is more than the estimated value of 2G scam, commonwealth scam and coal scam all put together.
* ‘Rajiv Chaitanya,’ the scheme to provide employment to two lakh rural youth, will be implemented soon
* English language will be taught as a subject from first standard from next year
* Implementation of SC/ST sub plans will be made compulsory
* Implementation of the Dr Chidananda Gowda Committee recommendation on Unicode software
* Generation of 4,000 MW of power in three years.
