Free ration to those who lost work in Kerala floods
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 27 : The Kerala government on Thursday announced it will provide free ration for three months to those who lost their livelihood due to the devastating floods.
"The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme will also be reworked to provide more number of working days to those who suffered due to the floods," Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the media here.
He also announced various committees headed by senior officials to formulate policies and to speed up rebuilding efforts in flood-hit state.
A one-year moratorium has been declared on all agricultural and educational loans.
Heavy rains and floods from May-end to mid-August claimed 483 lives and forced at least 14.50 lakh persons to take refugee in over 3,000 relief camps across the state.
"To rebuild Kerala, various initiatives are being worked out. In order to help us chalk out schemes, a high-level committee of experts drawn from various fields will be set up. It will include serving officers besides retired ones," Vijayan said after a weekly Cabinet meeting.
It was the first Cabinet meeting this month as Vijayan left for the US for medical treatment on September 2 and returned early this week.
He said that reconstruction efforts would require building material like sand and stones and that a committee of experts would be set up to explore the use of prefabricated material to minimise the use of traditional building material.
"It has also been decided to tap corporates for CSR funds for rebuilding our state in whatever possible ways. Crowd funding and sponsoring of projects also will be taken up. For this, another committee will be set up," the Chief Minister added.
Another decision pertained to ways and means to keep the rebuilding cost to the minimim. Efforts will be made to get in touch with companies to procure material from manufacturers.
"We will begin talks with such companies to supply at the lowest possible rates," Vijayan said.
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Karnataka Legislative Council Chairman expresses displeasure over absent ministers
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Legislative Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti on Tuesday briefly adjourned the House, expressing displeasure over the absence of Ministers and ruling party members post lunch break.
The development comes a day after Assembly Speaker U T Khader adjourned the House and walked out in protest, over the lack of written replies from government departments to questions raised by MLAs.
The "unprecedented" move by the Speaker had caused huge embarrassment to the Congress government, forcing the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to issue directives to Ministers and bureaucrats, including suspending errant officials.
When the council resumed after lunch, Leader of Opposition Chalavadi Narayanaswamy pointed toward the empty treasury benches and suggested that ruling party members seemed to have "boycotted" the proceedings.
Only Minister of School Education and Literacy Madhu Bangarappa and Chief Whip Saleem Ahmed were in attendance.
The Chairman asked, "Ministers are not here; what should I do?"
Raising objection to empty treasury benches, Opposition Chief Whip N Ravikumar said, "If we have to speak on any issues, who should we tell? Who is there among Ministers? Where is the government?"
Following this, Horatti adjourned the House for 10 minutes.
When the House resumed, a couple of Ministers -- Ramalinga Reddy, Santosh Lad arrived, but the treasury benches by and large remained sparse as most of the ruling Congress MLCs were absent.
The Chairman asked the Chief Whip Saleem Ahmed, "If there are no members and Ministers on the treasury bench side, what is it? How should the House be run? If you don't want, I will adjourn the House for tomorrow. What other work is there during the session? If there are no members and the seats are empty, how can the House run?"
When Horatti asked the Chief Whip about the MLCs, Ahmed replied, "They will be coming."
Pointing out that MLCs were not present, despite the House resuming late post lunch, the Chairman said, "What should we do? Shall I adjourn the House for tomorrow? What do you mean that they will be coming? I don't like it."
Ravikumar attacked the ruling Congress, asking, "Before whom should we raise the issues?"
When the Chairman expressed his willingness to adjourn the House till Wednesday morning, Ravikumar said the opposition BJP was ready to participate in the proceedings, provided the treasury benches show equal cooperation.
Defending the ruling party members, Congress MLC Ramesh Babu said there was some delay in the return of his party colleagues, who had gone for lunch.
As a couple of Ministers and ruling party MLCs started trickling in, the Chairman called BJP MLC A H Vishwanth to speak on the Budget.
