BANGALORE: The State Government has set up a committee headed by the former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Rama Jois to come up with ways to manage and run educational, religious and other organisations registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act, Minister for Muzrai B. Nagaraj Shetty said in the Legislative Council on Tuesday.

He told Prabhakar B. Kore (Congress) during Question Hour that the Act had been replaced by the Karnataka Hindu Religious Organisations and Religious Endowments Act, which came into effect on May 1, 2003. The Act was challenged in the Karnataka High Court, which struck it down, but the Supreme Court had stayed the High Court order, and the new Act was still in place, Mr. Shetty said.

There were 45 Christian organisations, 153 societies and 12 Parsi institutions registered with the Government. The Minister said there were 15,584 institutions in Belgaum, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Uttara Kannada districts whose activities had ground to a halt since managements could not be appointed to these institutions.

`Amend law'

V.R. Sudarshan (Congress) said this was true of such institutions and organisation all over the State and suggested that the law be amended so that the organisations could resume functioning.

Mr. Shetty said steps would be taken to put these organisations back on track soon after the Rama Jois committee submitted its report.

Mr. Shetty, who is also in charge of Fisheries, told L. Hanumanthaiah (Congress) that inland fisheries in Bangalore Urban district were spread over 13,306.08 hectares. They included 86 tanks held by the Fisheries Department, 620 tanks under gram panchayats and two reservoirs.

In Bangalore Rural district, there were 178 tanks of the department, 948 tanks under gram panchayats, and three reservoirs.

Organic farming

Agriculture Minister Bandeppa Kashempur told B.R. Gurudev (Janata Dal-S) that organic farming was making inroads in the State with many farmers taking to it. Last year a budgetary allocation of Rs. 8 crore was made, and programmes under implementation included developing model organic villages and sites at the district and taluk levels, going in for organic cultivation on State Government and university farms, documenting existing practices and providing inputs at subsidised rates. This year, however, only Rs. 4 crore had been provided.

Annapurna scheme

Food and Civil Supplies Minister Govind M. Karjol told K.C. Kondaiah (Congress) that under the Annapurna Anna scheme of the Union Government, the State had identified 36,644 beneficiaries. The target of 68,040 beneficiaries was likely to be reached soon.

Mr. Karjol clarified that as per the Centre's guidelines, persons receiving old age pension were not eligible for food coupons.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail