The Hindu : Karnataka News : IT sector's proposal slammed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

IT sector's proposal slammed

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, DEC. 27. U.R. Ananthamurthy, Jnanpith Award winner, on Monday hit out at the captains of the information technology sector for their demand to make Bangalore a city-state on the lines of Delhi and Pondicherry and asked the multinational corporations to implement Kannada in day-to-day administration.

Speaking at the silver jubilee celebrations of KEB Engineers' Association here, he said the IT captains' proposal to the Centre seeking the status of city-state for Bangalore is a criminal thought. "It is a crime." The domination of MNCs in the IT sector and IT-enabled services has created income disparity among the people and subjugated Kannadigas, he said.

Jobs

Dr. Ananthamurthy said that he is against calling Bangalore an IT capital. Instead of focusing only on IT and infrastructure, the Government should create more jobs in the public sector. With the desire to earn more money, a large number of youth are joining call centres without realising the health hazards they are likely to face. He also opposed the privatisation policy adopted by the Union and State governments.

Noting that Kannadigas are more tolerant compared to other language-speaking people, he said that some writers wrote many books in Kannada even though their mother tongue was Tamil or Marathi. The unity in diversity is the hallmark of the State, he said and called upon the people to safeguard the language from the onslaught of English. The association felicitated Dr. Ananthamurthy on the occasion.

New connections

The Minister for Public Works and Energy, H.D. Revanna, said the Government has decided to give new power connections to 60,000 irrigation pumpsets this financial year.

A decision has also been taken to upgrade 100 power stations of 222 kV capacity in the State. The KPTCL will spend Rs. 1,400 crores each year in the next four years to modernise distribution and transmission of power. Over 24 lakh households received power connection under the Bhagya Jyothi scheme and meters will be installed for all connections to estimate the power consumed by them, he said.

Power tariff

The KPTCL is also discussing the issue of power tariff to IP sets.

A revised power tariff will be introduced for different categories of farmers soon. There are over 16 lakh IP sets in the State and the officials have been instructed to supply power at least for nine hours a day.

The demand for power is increasing each day. The present demand is 125 million units while the supply is 95 million units, he said.

The Minister also stressed the need for elimination of power theft and reducing subsidy. The subsidy burden on the Government is estimated at Rs. 600 crores a year.

The president of the KEB Engineers' Association, B.N. Satyaprema Kumar, said the association has decided to provide a relief of Rs. 5 lakhs to some families affected by the Tsunami tidal waves in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala. He opposed the move to hand over power distribution to the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The NTPC has no expertise in power distribution and the Government should not consider its proposal, he said.

Bharat Lal Meena, Managing Director, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company, was also present.

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