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

(Photo: Janardan Kodavoor/JP)

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

2 years of Governance, achievement




25.06.2010: Tirupathi


Photo: Janardan Kodavoor

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Karnataka: curbing a menace

Bangalore, June 22 (PTI): Karnataka was in the process of formulating a package for the benefit of Naxals who wish to surrender, Home Minister Dr V S Acharya said today.

"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

MANGALORE: He is credited with bringing sense of order to traffic in cultural capital of the state - Mysore, and is now battling hard to do a Mysore in the capital city of Bangalore. What Praveen Sood did to traffic in Mysore as police commissioner there, and is trying to do in Bangalore as additional commissioner of police (traffic/security) has caught the eye of home minister V S Acharya, who wants his traffic skill sets for this city.

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







































South Asia’s first solar power plant in Yelesandra to generate 15,000 units per day
‘2,520 MW more power by March’

The State will have 2520 MW of additional power to its grid by March 31, next year, Home Minister Dr V S Acharya has said.

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)

13.06.2010



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)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Saturday, June 5, 2010

GIM 2010

Dr VSA with Toyota Concept car

Friday, June 4, 2010

GIM 2010: Karnataka wins mega steel, power investments

Bangalore, June 3

Stealing the show from the IT majors, companies in steel and power sectors were the big investors at the Global Investors Meet - Karnataka.With IT seeing very little investments on Day 1, Thursday belonged to the traditional manufacturing companies.

The Karnataka Government's intention to ensure equitable development across the State was visible, with most projects being located in the areas that need development.

"The State is developing five industrial corridors to take the benefits of industrialisation to the backward regions," said the Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr B. S. Yeddyurappa, at the inauguration of the two-day event.

Around 400 investors will sign MoUs (memoranda of understanding) at the two-day meet for implementation of various projects, totalling an investment of over Rs 3.5 lakh crore and generating employment for 6.5 lakh people.

The biggest investor in steel was not ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company, but a local company, Brahmani Industries Karnataka Ltd. Bellary benefits. While ArcelorMittal plans to invest Rs 30,000 crore in Karnataka, Brahmani Industries proposes to pump in Rs 36,000 crore to set up a 6-million-tonne-a-year integrated steel plant with a captive power plant. The projects of both companies will be located in and around Bellary district.

The inaugural event saw several memoranda of understanding being signed across various sectors.Mr Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman and CEO, ArcelorMittal, was the first to ink an MoU with the Karnataka Government to set up a 6 mtpa steel plant and 750-MW power generation facility, employing around 10,000 people. (Brahmani's project promises to give employment to 25,000 people.) Mr Mittal said if the progress in Karnataka is ahead of others, the company's steel project in the State will get priority over projects in other States.

JSW Steel plans to invest Rs 15,131 crore on capacity expansion and a captive power plant in Bellary, while Jindal Saw Pipes plans to set up a steel plant, again in Bellary, at Rs 130.88 crore. Bellary will get another steel plant, with Bhushan Steel setting up a 6 mtpa integrated facility at an investment of Rs 27,928 crore.Hazira Steel too signed an MoU firming up an investment of Rs 17,760 crore.Kalyani Steels and Bharat Forge (Rs 1,584 crore) too have proposed investments in power plants.

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd plans to invest Rs 8,656 crore in a coal-based thermal plant in Gulbarga. GAIL will lay a gas pipeline at an investment of Rs 4,544 crore.

IT bigwigs join the act: The IT industry saw home-grown majors Wipro and Infosys Technologies marking their commitment toBangalore, the country's IT capital. Both companies plan to set up software development centres at Sarjapur (in the city). While Infosys will invest Rs 2,250 crore on its facility that will employ 18,000 people, Wipro will pump in Rs 537 crore on its new centre.

Other sectors: Birla Cement plans to invest Rs 3,000 crore on capacity expansion, while Reliance intends to spend Rs 2,500 crore on a cement plant. The other investors include Shahi Exports (Rs 533 crore), Bombay Rayon and Scotts Garments (Rs 682 crore) for readymade garment exports, BEML (aircraft manufacture, Rs 316 crore), Zuari Fertilisers (urea plant, Rs 4,565 crore) and Narayana Hrudayalaya (Rs 990 crore on a 5,000 bed super speciality hospital near BIAL).

Foreign investment: The major foreign investors include Shell (R&D centre, Rs 1,376 crore), Lafarge (cement plant, Rs 1,500 crore) and Nestle (Rs 349 crore). (TheHinduBusinessLine)

State shows off 6 pack at GIM

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Govt to upgrade Kateel, Kollur temples

By Mangalorean

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.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010