'Jaladhare' aimed at supplying quality drinking water to villages to be launched soon: Kumaraswamy
Bengaluru, October 02: Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said that a detailed project report (DPR) was being prepared to launch ‘Jaladhare’ project aimed at supplying the quality drinking water to all villages in the state.
Inaugurating the Gandhi Gram Puraskar presentation programme organized by the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj department at the Banquet Hall at Vidhana Soudha here on Tuesday, the CM said that the Jaladhare programme would require more than Rs 60,000 crore and the project was aimed at providing quality drinking to the houses of each village in the state through taps from river water sources. Shortly, the details of the project would be placed before the people, he said.
The credit of introducing the decentralization of power to the nation should go to Karnataka. In 1984-85, then Panchayat Raj Minister Nazeer Saab in the chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde government had introduced decentralisation of power. Noticing that, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had amended the Constitution and applied that system to the entire country, he added.
Then Rural Development and Panchayat Raj minister in the erstwhile Congress government, HK Patil had started Gandhi Gram Puraskar from 2014 to honour the presidents and officers of the gram panchayats which work honestly and the coalition government has continued the award, the CM said.
The gram panchayats which have got the Gandhi Gram Puraskar during the 150th year Gandhi Jayanti would retain special memory. More than zilla and taluk panchayats, the gram panchayats would have more scope to develop the villages. The gram panchayats in and around Bengaluru would have more than Rs 5 crore revenue and they could do what the state government could not do. The gram panchayats have scope to reach the benefits to the people directly, the CM said.
Priority should be given to cleanliness in villages and gram panchayat presidents and PDOs have more responsibility. Desilting of tanks, clearing of encroachments, increasing the water storage capacity and other works to develop the villages, he said recalling the service of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said that each gram panchayat was like a government on the line of central and state governments. Identifying the best gram panchayats would inspire others to work more efficiently. For the drinking water schemes, the central government should give 70 per cent funds. But for the last four years, the centre has given just 12 per cent and remaining 88 per cent was being borne by the state government, he said.
MLA R Roshan Baig presided over the programme in which, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department Principal Secretary LK Atheek, Secretary Savithri, Director Kempe Gowda and others were present.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
