BANGALORE: The State Cabinet has decided to create a Karnataka Textbook Society to ensure that the distribution of free textbooks in government schools goes on smoothly.

On the basis of the recommendations of the K.P. Surendranath Committee, the Government has decided to get the books printed by the Government Press while the society will monitor the distribution round the year. Over 525 staff from the Government Press in Bangalore and 459 from Mysore will be transferred to the society, Information Minister B. Shivaram told presspersons after a Cabinet meeting here on Thursday.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister R. Ramalinga Reddy said delayed textbook distribution, with students waiting a whole term before getting textbooks in many parts of the State for the past few years, would soon become history.

DSERT overloaded

The Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) has been "overloaded with other work," and the most important task of ensuring that textbooks reach children in time had been suffering, he said.

The Government has also introduced counselling for teachers seeking transfer, and will no longer entertain requests for transfer or recommendation letters seeking transfer. Criteria for transfers have been fixed, and transfers will be affected only on this basis. Persons with disability and certain categories of teachers will be given preference. The Government will be sensitive to the needs of teachers whose spouses are in government service too. Those who try to get a transfer to rural areas revoked before completing the minimum five years in a rural posting will no longer be able to do so.

The Government has decided to regularise the appointment of 644 doctors serving in rural areas on contract basis since 1996. Since there are no candidates in the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes category, these reserved posts will be filled under the backlog list, Mr. Shivaram said.

The Cabinet approved a decision to allow the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation to raise a loan of Rs. 25 crores from banks for the purchase of 600 buses.

The Government also decided to make use of a Union Government scheme to set up a Regional Science Centre at Pilikula Nisargadhama in Dakshina Kannada on a 25-acre plot at a cost of Rs. 6.5 crores. Under the scheme, the Centre and the State Government will share the cost equally.

Title deeds

Mr. Ramalinga Reddy said the Government has decided to issue sale and title deeds to 6,475 families in 21 slums in Bangalore. The Slum Clearance Board will issue possession certificates to 3,227 families in nine slums. The beneficiaries will be barred from selling the property for ten years. The rate has been fixed at Rs. 25 a sq. ft for less than 600 sq. ft area and 25 per cent of the market rate for an area over 1,000 sq. ft, up to a limit of 2,400 sq. ft.

Since 2,078 bonded labourers who were identified and freed 51 years ago have not received their compensation and rehabilitation amount, the Government has set aside Rs. 3.91 crores to locate them and hand over the compensation to them, Mr. Shivaram said.

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