KARNATAKA

Allaying fears of people residing in rented accommodation about the free power scheme,KarnatakaCMSiddaramaiahand energy ministerKJ Georgeon Tuesday confirmed that tenants, too, would get the benefit of the scheme if they were consuming less than 200 units of power in a month.

Karnataka witnessed its steepest hike in power tariffs in mid-May when the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) ordered a 70-paise hike per unit. Even though the previous BJP government constantly rejectedproposals to increase the power tariff, theKERCuploaded its revised orders on its website on May 12, a day before the results of the state assembly were announced.

KERC revised the fixedcharges tariff and merged the urban and rural slabs into one category. While KERC had allowed revisions in tariffs between a minimum of 20 paise and a maximum of 48 paise in the past decade, this was the first time that KERC allowed such a steep hike.

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Union minister Pralhad Joshis recent statement on installing a big statue atUnkal Lakehas triggered a controversy with activists wanting the statue ofChannabasavanna, one of 12th-century sharanas, at the waterbody.

The erasing of Channabasava Sagar from a board there is the bone of contention. The lake was already named after Channabasavanna in January 2003. The erasing of his name form the board recently has left activists and the residents of Unkal and Hubballi upset.

The nextKhelo India, a programme introduced to revive the Sports culture in India at the grass-roots level by building a strong framework for all sports played, will be held in Karnataka, saidNarayana Gowda, Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs.

Inaugurating the 81stAll India Inter-University AthleticsChampionship at Swaraj Maidan,Moodbidri, he said the government is committed towards promoting sports in Karnataka. “In all the departments, 2% of jobs will be reserved for sportspersons and will get 50% of reservation in the departments related to sports, he said.
He said as many as 75 sports students are being groomed in the state to take part in the next Olympics.

The procession took place as part of 81st All India Inter-University Athletics drew a huge crowd and over 150 troupes representing diverse cultures of India participated in the event.

Several states includingKarnatakahave urged the Centre to enact a law to ban online gaming with stakes, alleging that the practice was ruining lives of people, especially youngsters. The demand was made during the two-day conference of law ministers and secretaries of all states in October.

In February this year, the Karnataka struck down the Karnataka Police (Amendment) Act 2021 that prohibited and criminalised online games with stakes. The court held that although poles apart in nature, the law puts games of skill on par with games of chance. The court also observed that the government enacted the law without the support of any study to understand the ill effects of online gaming.

To bring transparency and avoid irregularities in the tendering of government works, theKarnatakagovernment has decided to subject tenders costing Rs 50 crore and above to scrutiny by an independent committee headed by a retired judge of the .
The state cabinet took a decision in this regard at its meeting here on Monday. Besides the retired high court judge, the committee will have two members with expertise in finances and technical field. All tenders costing Rs 50 crore and above will go before the committee and they should be cleared in 15 days, said state law and parliamentary affairs minister JCMadhuswamy.

The set government up two such has committees decided to to speed up the process of scrutiny. Currently, each department has a panel of its own to scrutinise the tenders. But allegations of overestimation of budget, tweaks in qualification of bidders and taking up works deemed not necessary have put a question mark on the functioning of these committees. The new system will address all these issues, said Madhuswamy.

The cabinet cleared a sandmining policy, which seeks to empowergramand taluk panchayats to dispose of sand mined in their jurisdiction.

Under the policy, gram and taluk panchayats can sell sand extracted from streams and lakes at Rs 300 a tonne. Similarly,Mysuru Mines and Mineralsand Hatti Gold Mines have been empowered to extract sand from riverbeds and sell it in south and north Karnataka regions, respectively. The sand extracted from rivers will be priced at Rs 700 a tonne. The initiative will help GPs financially as 25% of the royalty will go to them.

Between April 2017 and March 2022, theKarnatakagovernment received complaints or tip-offs about 10,352 attempts of child marriage and 9,261 (about 90%) were prevented. In all, 860 FIRs were registered against people involved in getting minors married or at least tried it in the same period.

Experts and officials point out that most child marriages occur largely due to POVERTY, illiteracy, superstition or to ease what elders see as their burden of having a girl child.

Data of the Karnataka Women and child development department shows that 1,091 child marriages actually took place.

Of the 10,352 cases, most (3,007) were between April 2020 and March 2021, followed by the next 12 months that saw 2,819 cases. While these two years account for over 56% of all cases, the other three years (April 2017 to March 2020)together saw 4,526 cases.