After laying a foundation stone for a vegetable market complex at MSK Mill extension, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa inaugurated many completed projects at a public programme outside the newly built PWD office here on Saturday.
The projects included a PWD office building (Lokopayogi Bhavan), two flyovers (one at Sharana Sirasagi and other at Ram Mandir), Kittur Rani Chennamma Residential school building, post-matric hostels for boys and pre-matric hostels for girls.
“We are committed to fighting regional imbalances in the State and I have allocated ₹3,000 crore in the 2021-22 budget for the purpose. For Kalyana Karnataka, the action plans for various development projects involving a cost of ₹1,500 crore have been approved. The funds have been allocated to different districts and taluks based on the Dr. Nanjundappa Committee report,” Mr. Yediyurappa said in his address after the inauguration.
Pointing to the revenue crunch caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdown, Mr. Yediyurappa said that his government did not cut any funds to the development despite the serious deficit in the revenues.
“Due to COVID-19 crisis, there was a serious revenue crunch. Yet, we did not cut any allocations for development. The beautiful PWD building right before you is the glaring example for it. Under the Social Development department, we have spent ₹3,200.87 crore for Scheduled Castes and ₹1,2070.5 crore for Scheduled Tribes in the State. These funds are used for maintaining hostels, offering scholarships, running residential schools. Around 11.73 lakh students from Scheduled Castes and around 4.62 lakh students from Scheduled Tribes are benefited from it,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that his government was ready to handle the pandemic’s third wave.
“After successfully facing the COVID-19 second wave, we are now completely prepared to face the third wave. As per the experts, the third wave would bring home more difficulties for us. I, therefore, request you all to join hands with the government in its fight against the pandemic by strictly mandating the guidelines such as wearing face masks, maintaining social distance and cleanliness, and using sanitisers. We are also seeking help from the public to handle the pandemic situation. As many as 134 donors have got registered in CSR portal developed for the purpose and equipment worth ₹135 crore have been distributed,” Mr. Yediyurappa said.
