Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday directed officials concerned to formulate a Rs 1,000 crore action plan for the development of minority colonies.

The Chief Minister issued the direction while reviewing the progress of Minority Welfare and Housing Departments today.

He instructed that the areas with sizeable minority population be identified, and allocation of grants be made, during the preparation of the action plan.

Siddaramaiah said in the wake of the suspension of the scholarship given by the central government to the minority students, the state government has decided to bear the cost and disburse scholarship to 6.4 lakh students.

Pointing out that Rs 60 crore has been allocated in the budget, he said instruction has been given to officials to arrange additional 40 crores by redistributing the funds available in the Minority Welfare department.

A huge number of applications have been received online for various schemes meant for minorities and it has been decided to provide more grants for the same next year, he added.

Noting that construction of 1.31 lakh houses out of 3 lakh houses has been completed so far in the current year under various schemes, the Chief Minister, who also reviewed the Housing department, directed officials to complete work on 1.6 lakh houses by March.

Housing, Minority Welfare and Haj Minister B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan and other officials were present at the meeting.

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Bareilly (UP), Nov 24: Three people died when their car fell into the Ramganga river from a partially constructed bridge here on Sunday, police said, adding that they suspect the driver was misled by its navigation system into taking the unsafe route.

The accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district, they said.

"Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the system," Circle Officer Ashutosh Shivam said.

The driver was using a navigation system and did not realise that the bridge was unsafe, driving the car off the damaged section, the police said.

There were no safety barriers or warning signs on the approach to the damaged bridge, leading to the fatal accident, Shivam said.

Upon receiving information, police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Dataganj police station rushed to the spot. They recovered the vehicle and the bodies from the river, Shivam added.

The circle officer said that bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the matter is underway.