The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Blind opposition' may make us miss the bus

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Tuesday, Oct 19, 2010
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Blind opposition' may make us miss the bus

Staff Reporter

We may be stuck with the ‘developing nation' tag, says Acharya

Bangalore: “Blind opposition to development” is not the way forward in a State such as Karnataka, which “lags behind” in economic infrastructure such as electricity, road network and drinking water supply, Minister for Higher Education V.S. Acharya has said.

Citing examples such as the opposition to “certain electricity projects” and “communication networks” in the recent past, the Minister said that development has to be part of the State's agenda though it needed a judicious approach, with an eye on the environment.

Conference

Mr. Archarya was inaugurating a national conference on ‘Climate Change and its Impact on Natural Resources', organised by the Department of Environmental Science of Bangalore University and the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) on Monday.

While the State and the country as a whole have seen marked improvement in the social sector, with better health and higher literacy levels, India has been “overtaken” internationally in terms of economic infrastructure, he said. Without development on the agenda “we will be stuck with the ‘developing nation' tag,” Mr. Acharya warned.

Climate change, he added, is the greatest environmental challenge facing the world, a phenomenon that owes itself to social, environmental, micro and macro processes. “We cannot prevent these changes from taking place. But we have to use technology to deal with it,” he said.

‘Extreme weather'

It is estimated that summer temperatures in India will increase by 2.2 degrees Celsius in 40 years, said KSPCB Chairman A.S. Sadashivaiah, who delivered the keynote address. “We are already beginning to see extreme weather conditions, such as flash floods and heat waves,” he said, adding that developing countries were most vulnerable to climate change.

The three-day conference will see discussions on climate change in relation to pollution, water resources, biodiversity, agricultural practices, solid waste management and policy regulations.

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