DK Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao hands title deeds to owners during ‘Janata Darshana’ event in Bantwal
Bantwal: District In-charge Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao received applications related to various government benefits from citizens in the taluk and also handed title deeds to the site owners during the district-level ‘Janata Darshana’ organized in BC Road here on Wednesday.
Inaugurating the event, the minister said that such events would also be held at taluk-level across the district for senior officials of all government departments to respond to the needs of the people and make the government facilities accessible to citizens. “The state government continues to fulfill the promises made to the people and has provided financial benefits to crores of people in a very short period. The guarantee schemes of Karnataka are models for the entire nation,” Rao said.
“Title deeds have been handed today to more than 177 people in Bantwal taluk to ensure security of land for the owners. The process will continue and more number of people will be provided title deeds for their sites,” he said.
Bantwal MLA Rajesh Nayak, who presided over the programme on Wednesday, directed the government officers to respect the needs of the locals, especially the citizens belonging to financially backward classes, and work at fulfilling the valid requests.
The district in-charge minister received more than 100 petitions, including 74 from residents of Bantwal taluk, in relation to various issues. The people are learned to have asked for a closure of the BC Road toll gate on the National Highway 75. They also urged the minister to ensure the conversion of the Udupi-Kasaragod power transmission line into underground of via sea route for safety of the people. A demand was also made to provide more doctors at the government hospitals, widening of the Vitla-Saradka stretch, construction of an electric sub-station at Kudupadavu and construction of a new bridge across River Nethravathi at Panemangalore.
Dinesh Gundu Rao, who earlier inspected the work on the Polali bridge on the outskirts of Mangaluru, told reporters in Bantwal, “PWD officers have been directed to complete the work prior to May and open it for all traffic before the onset of monsoon. The state government is also examining a proposal for the construction of a new bridge at Polali.”
Referring to sand extraction near the pillars of the bridge, the minister opined, “Stopping illegal mining of sand is difficult as many people will be involved in it. Officials have been directed to install CCTV cameras in the area to keep a watch near the pillars and curb illegal extraction of sand within 500-metre radius of the pillars.”
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Chhattisgarh coal levy scam: Rs 4 crore assets of suspended IAS officer attached
Raipur (PTI): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has attached properties of Rs 4 crore belonging to suspended IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, an accused in a coal levy scam, for allegedly amassing assets beyond his known sources of income, officials said.
The EOW had registered a disproportionate assets case against Vishnoi in July 2024, an official release said on Saturday.
During the investigation, the agency identified nine immovable properties, valued at around Rs 4 crore, allegedly acquired through illicit means in the names of Vishnoi’s family members and associated firms, it said.
“An application seeking attachment of these properties was filed before the Special Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act in Raipur. Following a hearing on April 17, the court ordered attachment of all such properties,” the statement said.
Accordingly, the Anti-Corruption Bureau/Economic Offences Wing attached the properties. The attached properties cannot be sold or transferred, it said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier provisionally attached five immovable properties linked to Vishnoi in connection with the coal levy scam, it added.
Proceedings are also underway in cases involving other public servants, including action taken in September last year against properties linked to Saumya Chaurasia, who was deputy secretary in the chief minister’s office during the Congress government, the statement said.
Vishnoi, a 2009-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, was first arrested in 2022 by the ED in connection with the alleged coal levy scam. He was among several accused who were granted bail last year by the Supreme Court.
The case refers to an alleged Rs 540 crore racket between July 2020 and June 2022, when an illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was being extorted by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen for every tonne of coal transported in the state.
