Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Development in progress: rural areas connected with a suspension bridge
Pethri, Udupi district gets a suspension bridge
Udupi, 27 June 2010: The hanging bridge connecting Kamabalamajalu and Petri of Udupi Gram Panchayat area was inaugurated by Home Minister Dr V S Acharya here at Kukkikatte on Saturday.
Speaking on the occasion, Acharya informed that as many as hundred places have been identified in the district for constructing hanging and other small bridges.
Udupi district leads the parameters deciding human development index in the State. Education, sanitation and public awareness on crucial issues is at higher ratio in the district. The allocations made for the basic infrastructure facilities are much greater than any other districts, he added.
The government is supporting measures aiding integrated and all round development of the district, he said. The project is taken up under Integrated Tribal Development Programme (ITDP).
Udupi-Chikmagalur MP D V Sadananda Gowda, Kaup MLA Lalaji Mendon, Udupi MLA Raghupathy Bhat, DC Hemalatha, ZP President Gladys Almeida, CEO N Rajashekar and others were present. (DHNS)
Dr V S Acharya Inaugurates City Police Commissioner’s Office
Inauguration Ceremony of D.K.Dist Police Commissioner's Office
by Honble Home Minister of Karnataka State Dr. V.S.Acharya & D.G. Ajay Kumar Singh
New Commissioner as Mr. Seemanth Kumar Singh.
Photos: Manju Neereshwallya
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Karnataka: curbing a menace
"The new package is likely to be announced in about six months by the authorities in Naxal affected districts," he told reporters here.
He claimed Naxal activities in the state have come down due to steps taken by Karnataka in the last eight years.
Acharya regretted that Karnataka had not been invited to the recent meeting of Naxal-hit states convened by the Centre to discuss the problem despite the fact that the state has seen a decline in Naxalite activities.
The Anti-Naxal Force is engaged in regular combing operations in Naxal-affected districts, he said.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Traffic Management: Engineering, Education & Enforcement
In fact, it was an impromptu decision by Dr Acharya to pull Sood's name out of the hat when traffic woes haunting this port city came overflowing at a review meeting of city's infrastructure problems conducted by the Urban development minister Suresh Kumar recently. Having seen Sood's performance closely in Bangalore, Acharya had no qualms in stating that Sood would find solutions to traffic problems here as well.
Sood, appreciative of the confidence that home minister has in his abilities told TOI over phone that there are no quick fix solutions to traffic problems the world over. "Each city has its peculiar problems," Sood said. But problems in each city although different can be addressed by sticking to the three Es - namely engineering, education and enforcement. Each of these components has its own importance and cannot be neglected, he adds.
While the engineering aspect has to deal jointly by the police, city corporation and public works department, Sood said education (of all road users) plays a vital aspect in having orderly traffic. Enforcement though an important part should be the least used weapon in police armoury, but an important one when education fails, he avers.
Some offences for which there should be zero tolerance, he said include jumping signals, over speeding, drunken driving and motorists entering no-entry roads. They are important from safety point of view of all concerned. Enforcement in Bangalore has netted a revenue of Rs 44 crore up from Rs 14 crore, but at the same time has brought down fatal accidents from 1,000 to less than 600 on a comparative basis in last two years, he pointed out. (TOI)
Friday, June 18, 2010
South Asia’s first solar power plant at Karnataka
Speaking at a programme to dedicate the three-MW solar power plant at Yelesandra in Bangarpet taluk on Thursday, the minister said the power crisis in the State would ease TO some extent with the commissioning
of the solar plant.
“We hope that majority of the problems pertaining to power will be addressed with the additional generation expected by March next year,” the minister said.
Acharya said Karnataka had drawn the attention of the world by tapping of hydel power 108 years ago and the State was hogging he limelight once again with the setting up of first solar power plant in South Asia. The plant has been commissioned in a span of ten months, he said. (DHNS)
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
No need to extend bar timings: No such proposal as well
June 14: Home minister V.S. Acharya on Monday said the state government has no intentions of extending the deadline beyond 11.30 pm for bars, restaurants, five star and other major hotels. Speaking to reporters here, Dr Acharya said he was aware of the statements of his Cabinet colleague, M.P. Renukacharya, appearing in newspapers, about the need to extend the timings at least of five star hotels and major hotels in major cities beyond midnight.
“I am aware of the statements. But I strongly feel that there is no need to extend the timings in view of the safety of the public. Security risk is the main issue. I sincerely feel even the Chief Minister has the same opinion. As of now, there is no proposal before the government about extending the timings of bar and restaurants and five star hotels beyond 11.30 pm,” he said. When reminded about Mr Renukacharya’s statement that he had called for a meeting of excise officials and hotel owners on June 18 to decide about issue of extension of the deadline, Dr Acharya said his colleague had only expressed his opinion and there was nothing wrong with it.
“These things have to be discussed before a final decision is taken,” Dr Acharya said. When police commissioner Shankar Bidri had expressed concern about the law and order situation if the deadline was extended, Mr Renukacharya had even curtly replied that the police officer should stick to his job and not interfere with policy decisions. (Deccan Chronicle)
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Excellence in Civil Engineering: Backbone for infrastructure development
MANGALORE, June 11, 2010: The state government was planning to start four new engineering college exclusively for training Civil engineers in the state. The colleges will be of the standard of Indian Institute of Technology, said Dr. V.S.Acharya home minister of Karnataka. He was Participating in the exhibition of building materials and technologies organised by the State PWD civil engineers Association on the occasion of the district level civil engineers workshop organised by the state Public Work Department on Friday.
Dr. Acharya said it was very unfortunate that students opt to take medical and other branches of engineering despite the civil engineering having a large scope in the modern economy. He said the civil engineering had a great scope as there were new buildings to be built, new roads to be laid, new bridges, dams and reservoirs to be constructed but we hardly get engineers to fill up the jobs. The new colleges will be built on international styling of campuses and will have modern labs, classrooms, new set of guidelines, curriculum and highly trained faculty."We have to understand the situation around us, everything was changing in the field of civil engineering, and there was so much of work at hand which can be accomplished only by getting exclusive colleges for civil engineering Dr. Acharya said.Apart from all that material changes we have to bring about a change in our work culture and bring up our integrity to a higher level. The stress on classroom teaching should be done away with and more of experiential inputs should be the mantra he added. On this occasion Dr. Acharya also inaugurated the exhibition and visited various stalls and evinced keen interest in few of the technologies exhibited on the occasion. Top civil engineers of the district and the PW Department were present. New concrete technology, waterproofing material, new steel and cement and many other building materials were exhibited. (Mangalorean)
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
GIM 2010: Karnataka wins mega steel, power investments
Bangalore, June 3
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Govt to upgrade Kateel, Kollur temples
BANGALORE, June 3, 2010: Minister for Home Dr V S Acharya on Wednesday said the Government has decided to upgrade facilities available at the Kollur Mookambika temple in Udupi district and Sri Durga Parameshwari temple at Kateel near Mangalore.
Addressing the media, Dr Acharya said the government would release Rs. 14 crore to the Mookambika temple to provide more facilities such as drinking water, accommodation, roads, bus-stands, health centre, and drainage and a sum of Rs 3.7 crore would be released to provide basic facilities at the temple at Kateel, near Bajpe, in Dakshina Kannada district.
Dr. Acharya, who also holds the Muzrai portfolio, said a large number of devotees visit both temples round the year. But there are no quality guest house and other facilities at both temples.
Though the local population is less than 10,000 at both temple areas, the floating population was more than 50,000 per day.
Dr Acharya said that there is no life threat to Sri Sri Ravishankar, Art of Living founder, and the scale of security has been stepped up at the Ashrama premises here to prevent any untoward incidents.
The police have continued their investigation into an unidentified gunman’s attempt on the life of Sri Sri Ravishankar and there was no breakthrough in the probe so far. Dr Acharya said the police have continued the investigation into the incident and he would not comment on the issue till he gets the probe report.
Referring to the naxal issue in the Western Ghat and coastal region of the state, he said the Government has stepped up security in the naxal-infested region of Dakshina Kannada, Shimoga, Chikmagalur and Udupi districts following the derailment of a train by naxals in West Bengal.
''We are keeping a strict vigil. Anti Naxal Force has done a good job in the three districts. "We have asked our men to be on high alert mode in the wake of heightened naxal activities in States of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and other States,'' Dr Acharya said.
Meanwhile, the police have arrested Nandakumar and Manohar, suspected naxalites, in the last couple of days, he said.
Hogenakkal issue
He said secretaries of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will be meeting in a few days to discuss a proposal to set up a 345 MW hydro-electricity project at Shivanasamundra by Karnataka and a drinking water project taken up at Hogenakkal by Tamil Nadu.
The official level talks would pave the way for the ministerial level talks on resolving the boundary dispute and the Hogennakal issue. The State government would like to discuss with the Tamil Nadu government the proposal to set up the hydroelectricity project Shivanasamudram by incurring all the cost. The water utilised for power generation would be released to Tamil Nadu.
The Karunanidhi government has been opposing the proposed Shivanasamudram run-of-the river hydel plant project. The government would like to hold talks with the Tamil Nadu government on both the drinking water scheme and the hydel power project utilising Cauvery waters. The boundary disputes between two states would remain till the line of control was clearly demarcated, Dr Acharya said.