Karnataka - Madikeri   

Rs. 4.91 cr. for Madikeri development

Staff Correspondent

A sum of Rs. 2.03 crore will be released in the first phase for taking up 17 projects

Madikeri: The Government has released Rs. 4.91 crore under the State Finance Commission grants for taking up development projects in the Madikeri City Municipal Council (CMC) limits, Madikeri MLA K.G. Bopaiah has said. .

He told presspersons here on Wednesday that funds would be released in two phases. In the first, Rs. 2.03 crore would be released for taking up 17 projects. Of this, Rs. 1 crore had already been released. The remaining would be released in the second stage for implementing 19 projects. The action plan for the first phase had been approved by him and the CMC Administrator, Mr. Bopaiah said. The Government had released Rs. 125 crore to the State under Finance Commission grants for development of local urban body headquarter cities. Funds were deposited with the Directorate of Municipal Administration.

The major work in the first phase was renovation of Kannandabane tank, an important drinking water source to Madikeri city, at a cost of Rs. 48.5 lakh.

Cement roads, estimated to be built at a cost of Rs. 49.5 lakh, too had been proposed in the first phase. It would cover roads from Mahadevpet-Ram Mandir-Appachu Rice mill-private bus stand that lead towards Junior College Road and end on Mysore Road, he said. Mr. Bopaiah said that he had taken all former Councillors into confidence before finalising the action plan for the city.

In the second phase, Rs. 49 lakh would be spent for removing silt from the Kootuhole reservoir, the main source of drinking water supply to Madikeri. Replying to a question, Mr. Bopaiah said that the Kundamestri project to provide drinking water to the city from the outskirts was also on the anvil, for which a sum of Rs. 7.33 crore had been approved by the Finance Department.

On the delimitation of CMC wards from 23 to 31, Mr. Bopaiah said that he had sought clarifications from the Legal Cell. Madikeri had been made a CMC irrespective of the population criterion. Similar arrangements could be made for increasing the number of wards too, but it was left to the discretion of the Government, he said.

Mr. Bopaiah appealed to farmers in the district to file applications for relief in case of crop loss in the wake of the rain. Applications could be filed at the respective taluk offices. Madikeri taluk’s loss in the recent rain had been put at Rs. 11.1 crore.

The loss to property, mainly roads, in Madikeri city had been put at Rs. 1.23 crore, Mr. Bopaiah said. He said he would press the Government for setting up a special road fund for Kodagu according to the recommendations of the Nanjundappa Committee report, he added. Referring to the proposed Kodagu bandh on July 2, Mr. Bopaiah asked the “Bane Hakku Rakshana Samiti” to exercise restraint since the Government was close to arriving at a decision on according rights over “jamma bane” land. Pseudo-environmentalists were misleading the Government on the issue of according rights over “jamma bane” and other categories of land, he alleged.

Mr. Bopaiah said a delegation would be sent to New Delhi to impress upon the Commission that all the three Assembly segments in the district should be retained.

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