K'taka Legislative Council adopts resolution urging Centre to include 56 pc quota in 9th Schedule
Belagavi (PTI): Karnataka Legislative Council has adopted a resolution asking the central government to include the state's 56 per cent reservation decision in the ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
The resolution was adopted by the Council in the absence of the opposition members on Friday, as they had earlier staged a walkout dissatisfied with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's reply to the debate on North Karnataka's development.
The resolution urging for the inclusion of the state's notifications and orders, increasing the reservation in employment and education for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes from 50 per cent to 56 per cent in Schedule-9 of the Constitution of India, was moved by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil.
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According to official sources, the demand for inclusion in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution is aimed at providing legal protection from the 50 per cent cap on reservations, imposed by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney case.
The House also adopted six resolutions urging the Centre to address long-pending issues, in the absence of opposition members.
The resolutions include: Urging the Government of India to immediately establish the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Raichur district; to transfer at least 25 per cent of the 73 national-level institutes currently in Bengaluru to the North Karnataka region; to immediately declare the Upper Krishna Project Phase-III (UKP-III) as a national project, release central funds and demand gazette notification of the final award of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II).
The resolutions demand the release of Rs 5,000 crore adjustment grant to the Kalyana Karnataka Regional Development Board from the Central Government on the Vidarbha development model; to protect farmers by fixing equal ethanol procurement quotas without discrimination, and, in accordance with the ethanol production capacity of Karnataka, based on the availability of sugarcane and other raw materials, were also passed.
A resolution was also adopted urging the Centre to expedite the necessary approvals from the Forest and Wildlife Boards for the ambitious Kalasa-Banduri Nala Diversion Project for drinking water supply, in accordance with the judgment of the Mahadayi Tribunal.
Similar resolutions were adopted in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
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FM Sitharaman launches 'VijAIpatha' labs in govt schools in Karnataka
Hampi (PTI): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday launched Cyient AI Labs (CyAILS) -- 'VijAIpatha', aimed at democratising access to Artificial Intelligence, STEM and Robotics education in government schools here.
In a series of posts on 'X', the minister's office shared pictures of the initiative launched at a girl's government school in Hosapete taluk and said that under the pilot phase, five world-class AI, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and Robotics laboratories are being established in government schools.
Each lab will be equipped with high-performance computers, AI-ready software, robotics kits, IoT devices, sensors and secure broadband connectivity.
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"Aligned with NEP 2020, Digital India and Hon'ble Prime Minister @narendramodi's mission of Viksit Bharat 2047, the programme integrates CBSE's AI curriculum and strengthens technology-enabled learning in public education," it said.
Focusing on rural and semi-urban India, the initiative introduces future technologies at the school level, helping build early digital fluency, computational thinking and innovation capacity among students, the minister's office said.
"Benefiting over 2,000 students and training more than 200 teachers, 'VijAIpatha' is a scalable CSR model fostering innovation, career readiness and grassroots digital empowerment," it added.
According to the office, the initiative has been designed as a scalable, replicable and sustainable model that can be adopted across districts and states in collaboration with government education departments, positioning it as a benchmark CSR model for a national AI education rollout.
