KARNATAKA

The directed the State Government to place on record orders passed regarding withdrawal of cases against MPs and MLAs after September 16, 2020.

This comes a day after theSupreme Courtorder stipulating that no case against an MP orMLAcould be withdrawn without the Consent of high courts.

A division bench headed by chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka pointed out that as per directions of the apex court, legality of the actions taken by the state government after September 16, 2020 for withdrawal of prosecution against a sitting or formerMP/MLAwill have to be considered and for facilitating the same, the state is required to furnish details.

Excise revenue from liquor sales inKarnatakahas seen a 65% jump over the last five years, increasing from Rs 17,948.5 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 29,600 crore in 2022-23.The revenue is estimated to double by March 2024, given the budgetary target of Rs 36,000 crore from liquor sales, as enumerated in CM Siddaramaiah’s budget proposal.

Revenue from liquor sales over the past decade and-a-half has seen a whopping 600% jump, with the trend likely to continue as successive state governments find tipplers an easy target whenever faced with the challenge of mopping up revenue. In his budget proposal, Siddaramaiah announced a hike of 20% in the additional excise duty levied on liquor to mobilise funds to meetCongress’ five poll guarantees.

The hike, to be effective from next month, is the 11th since 2008 and the eighth in the last ten years. The has hikedAEDby a massive 52% over just three years, apparently to meet a shortfall in revenue generation owing to the pandemic.

With physical classes unlikely to start soon, the Education department has chalked out a plan to reach children through various ways depending upon the availability of gadgets with them. Dropping the last years plans– where teachers met students outside schools (Vidyagama-1) and when they started meeting inside schools (Vidgyagama-2)– the education has asked teachers to be in continuous touch through worksheets or gadgets, if available, and meeting them or their parents twice a week in school to distribute the worksheets and discuss their progress.

Soft copies of textbooks can be downloaded using QR code. Teachers must make WhatsApp groups of parents and students, make short Videos, audio clips and share with students, send practice sheets on mobiles.

The department has emphasised the need of maintaining continuous and extensive evaluation and profiles of each of every student. Teachers have been asked to advise parents to support children in whichever way they can.

Kalaburagi, facing acute shortage of ambulances, became the only city inKarnatakato deploy autorickshawambulancesto ferry Covid-positive patients to hospitals free of cost. The service with a fleet of fiveauto ambulancesbegan late Tuesday evening and aims at ensuring patients reach hospitals without much wait.

The idea behind introducing auto ambulances is not only about shortage of ambulances. Many patients have been requesting autorickshaw drivers to reach out to hospitals and many drivers refuse fearing the virus spread and stigma.

It is now Bengalurus turn to get spotted on the drone-delivery map with Hyderabad-based Scandron Pvt Ltd partnering with Bengaluru-based company CriticaLog India Pvt Ltd to fly out organs.

About 20-25 drones will be deployed in Bengaluru alone. At present, these can handle a payload of 5kg-20kg, at an operational speed of 12 metres per second, powered by lithium ion batteries.

A PARTNERSHIP worth Rs 600 crore was signed on Wednesday to provide drone-based logistics solutions in 160 cities across India, including Bengaluru, thereby eventually aiming to do away with ambulances and green corridors.

Karnataka Rural Development Ltd (KRIDL) has completed just 28% of the 85,000 works assigned to it between 2016 and 2021 resulting in an accumulation of funds to the tune of Rs 17,320 crore.

This was found in several instances between 2016-21, all adding up to Rs 303.8 crore. The report also highlighted how KRIDL misused the exemption clause of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act by splitting works worth more than Rs 2 crore into small pieces, there – by avoiding the tender process.

The pandemic and its impact on the economy had compelled the to reduce its revenue forecast for what is considered the largestchillimarket in Asia:Byadagiin Haveri district.
Although the state government had set a revenue target of Rs 9.5 crore from the market for the 2021-22 fiscal year, the market has already registered a turnover of Rs 11.2 crore, having far outstripped the conservative estimate of the state government.

In 2020-21, when the state government had forecast that the Byadagi market would register revenue to the tune of Rs 15 crore, the sales touched a sum of Rs 18 crore. The stakeholders attributed the impressive sales to the reduction in theAgriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture Produce Market Committee(APMC) cess.

The spike in the price of Byadagi Chilli, with one quintal of the crop selling for a record Rs 70,000, ensured that the many farmers in North Karnataka continued cultivating it. The sale of Byadagi Chilli helped increase revenue of the market this year, with the crop registering sales higher than what it had registered in the previous fiscal year.

The State of Karnataka is entering in May 2023. The Interim Budget for 2023-24 was presented by the State CM Basavaraj Bommai. The interim budget is the budget presented ahead of elections. The Government of Karnataka is to set up a startup park near Bengaluru Airport; provide free bus passes to students, toilets in government schools; etc. The total budget outlay was Rs 9,698 crores

Key Highlights of Karnataka Budget 2023-24

Traffic signals are to use AI

She Toilets are to be constructed in Bengaluru

Flood control project to be implemented at a cost of Rs 3000 crores. Assistance received from World Bank

Bengaluru Metro Rail Project: 40.15 km to be constructed

Satellite Town Ring Road to be constructed; 30% of acquisition cost to be borne by State Government

75 new junctions to ease Bengaluru Traffic at Rs 150 crores

Karnataka Economic Scenario

Total Tax Revenue in 2023-24 estimated to be Rs 1,64,653 crores

Total Non-Tax revenue in 2023-24 is expected to be Rs 11,000 crores

Total Expenditure for the year 2023-24 is estimated to be Rs 3,09,182 crores

For the first time after the pandemic, in 2022-23, the revenue receipt was higher than the Revenue Expenditure

RamanagaraDistrict Administration is working towards having one model school in every gram panchayat. It has identified four schools and is addressing logistical solutions to get students and teachers to the select schools.

The Education department had also announced a similar plan of having a model government school in every gram panchayat with all facilities par excellence under one roof. While there is no policy decision on this yet, the Ramanagara project is driven by various public authorities in the administration. There is a lot of unevenness and irrationality in the allocation of manpower, and other facilities in schools that we encounter on a day-to-day basis. The idea is to pool in all the Resources at one place in one gram panchayat so that we can aggregate all the infrastructure and manpower, said Ramanagara chief executive officerIkram.

The authorities also roped in private organisations and industries who would be providing school buses under their corporate social responsibility to help students and teachers commute to the school.

The on Monday said 50% of the target Population in the 15-17 years age group has been inoculated with the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Health minister K Sudhakar said: Of the estimated total of 31. 7 lakh children in this age group in the state, we have administered the first dose to 15. 6 lakh across the state.

Data shows percentagewise, Kodagu vaccinated the highest number at 70%. Eighteen districts in the state clocked more than 50% coverage, including Bangalore Urban (51%). Bangalore Rural clocked 47%, while the lowest vaccination Percentage was reported from Yadgir district at 29%.