Karnataka - Hassan   

Yeddyurappa lays emphasis on educating the girl child

Start: Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa inaugurating a renovated temple at Banavase village near Gorur on Saturday. (From left) H.K. Kumaraswamy, MLA, Ashok Kheny, Managing Director of the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise, and Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji of Suttur Math are seen.

HASSAN: Inaugurating the renovated Eshwara Parvathi Veerabhadreswara temple at Banavase village near Gorur in Hassan taluk, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa stressed the importance of education of the girl child and justified his decision to enhance the value of Bhagyalakshmi bond to Rs. 1 lakh from Rs. 40,000 so that girl child born in poor family can pursue education.

A bond of Rs. 20,000 would yield Rs. 1 lakh when the girl attained the age of 18, he said. The girl could pledge the bond to obtain an educational loan of up to Rs. 50,000 for studies after the 12th standard, he said.

Lauding B.R. Somappa, who has been his bodyguard since 15 years, Mr. Yeddyurappa said that he came to inaugurate the temple on his insistence.

Mr. Somappa, who is from Banavase, is the treasurer of the temple renovation committee. The 800-year-old temple has been renovated at a cost of Rs. 12 lakh.

The Chief Minister said he would be visiting Chicago later this month to address the annual conference of the Association of Kannada Kootas of America (AKKA). He said he would appeal to non-resident Indians (NRIs) to return to India and serve the nation.

Mr. Yeddyurappa advised women members of gram panchayats to exercise their power to provide good governance and work towards empowerment of women. Steps should be taken to ensure that there was no migration of people from villages to cities. Every village should become self-reliant, only then Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of gram swaraj would come true, he said.

The Chief Minister then listed out various welfare programmes of his Government. He said the Government was providing free power to irrigation pump sets of 17 lakh farmers in the State from August 1. An incentive of Rs. 2,000 would be given to farmers to encourage organic farming.

“I want to develop villages before making Bangalore a Singapore,” he said and added that he would take the State’s treasury to villages to ensure their development.

Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji of Suttur Math recalled the statements of the former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and the Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on the country’s development and advised youth to follow their guidelines.

Managing Director of the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ashok Kheny said that he had submitted a proposal on constructing express corridors from each district to Bangalore, to the Chief Minister.

Mr. Kheny said that he would shift his resident to Hassan as the weather here had pleased him.

H.K. Kumaraswamy, MLA and former Minister, in his presidential remarks, appealed to the Chief Minister to announce a compensation of Rs. 10,000 an acre of potato crop lost owing to blight disease.

He also urged Mr. Yeddyurappa to take steps to check elephant menace and to rehabilitate 19 villages that were affected by the backwaters of Gorur dam. The programme begun with an invocation by Inchira Nagesh. S.M. Anand, MLC, and B.R. Gurudeva were present.

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