Karnataka govt forms four cabinet sub-committees on drought
Bengaluru, Nov 23: The Karnataka government Friday said it has decided to constitute four cabinet sub-committees of senior ministers for each revenue division to ensure effective implementation of drought mitigation measures.
The state government has notified 100 taluks of 24 districts as drought affected.
"To ensure effective implementation of drought mitigation measures and to review drought mitigation works taken up by Deputy Commissioners, the government will constitute four cabinet sub-committees, comprising senior ministers, for each revenue division," Revenue Minister R V Deshpande said.
Speaking to reporters here, he said a senior officer of the rank of secretary or principal secretary would work as the coordinating officer in the cabinet sub-committees.
The committees would tour drought affected districts and hold meetings with all concerned and guide the Deputy Commissioners in drought relief and mitigation measures, the minister added.
Noting that the dry spell was continuing in the state, 'reeling under 49 per cent rain deficiency' in the rabi season, he said that the government's response to mitigate the impact of drought has been mainly on employment generation, provision of drinking water and fodder availability.
He said sufficient funds -- Rs 220 crore -- was available with Deputy Commissioners to take up drought mitigation works.
Apart from this, Rs 50 lakh (united fund) has been approved from the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department to each drought affected taluk to take up drinking water related works, the minister said.
As of now drinking water was being supplied through tankers to 197 villages in 13 districts, officials said, adding that the situation was likely to exacerbate in the coming days and steps were being taken to respond to it.
Referring to drought and floods during the Kharif season of 2018, Deshpande said a 10 member inter-ministerial central team extensively toured 13 drought affected districts from November 17 to 19.
"The team is expected to submit its report by the end of this month and we are confident that the state will receive funds through NDRF in a short time," the minister said.
Deshpande also said as it was found that fodder was going to neighbouring states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala,Andhra Pradesh Maharashtra and Goa,the cabinet sub-committee recently decided to ban movement of fodder to other states up to May 31, 2019.
The government anticipates a "problem" in the Rabi season also as the sowing acreage has fallen by about eight lakh hectares, compared to last year.
Officials said that the targeted area for rabi sowing was 31.80 lakh hectares. Till November 16, sowing was done in 20.76 lakh hectares against the normal 26.19lakh hectares.
Last year during the same period (Nov 16) sowing was completed in 28.22 lakh hectares, they said.
Deshpande also noted that the revenue department had conducted a 'File disposal week' from November 12-18, during which more than 2.56 lakh files were cleared.
"In Future also, we will try to evolve different strategies to clear about 7,97,258 files that are pending as on November 19," he said.
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Six doctors booked for misleading father of child who died due to ‘wrong treatment’
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (PTI): A case has been registered against six doctors of a private hospital in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar for allegedly misleading the father of a child who died under their care, police said on Friday.
The accused doctors also allegedly tampered with the evidence, they said.
According to a release by the police, a 5-year-old kid was admitted to Vedant Hospital in the city’s Sutgirni area on April 26. The boy underwent a surgery at the hospital the same day.
The child died on May 6 after being under treatment for nearly 10 days.
The boy’s father Avinash Aghav has alleged that his son died due to wrong treatment at the hospital. He also claimed that evidence was destroyed and papers related to the treatment were not given to him, the release said.
The complainant has accused the hospital of tampering with the CCTV footage of the premises from April 26 to April 28, the release said.
The doctors – Arjun Pawar, Shaikh Ilyas, Ajay Kale, Abhijit Deshmukh, Tushar Chavhan and Nitin Adhane – were booked on Wednesday for causing death by negligence and destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code, the release added.
The police release did not explain the time gap between the death of the child and the registration of the case against the doctors.
