Formation of 12 more taluks approved by K’taka cabinet

• Kodagu gets two more taluks

Bengaluru: The Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s proposal during the budget speech for the creation of 12 new taluks in 10 districts including Kodagu has received clearance from Karnataka cabinet. The formation of the new taluks is on grounds of better and effective administration. A few of the new taluks were proposed by the earlier Siddaramaiah government.

 Of the 12 new taluks include two new taluks in the hilly tourist district of Kodagu being Kaveri and Ponnampet. So far, Kodagu was divided into Madikeri, Somwarpet and Virajpet taluks. The people here were demanding for the creation of these taluks in addition to another in Napoklu which failed to get the cabinet’s consent.

The newly formed taluks include Harohalli in Ramanagara, Cheluru in Chikkaballapur, Teradala in Bagalkot, Kalasa in Chikkamagaluru, Ponnampet and Kushalnagar in Kodagu, Alamela in Vijayapura,  Mulki and Ullal in DK,  Saligrama in Mysuru, Shantigrama in Hassan and  Yaragatti in Belagavi.

Revenue Minister RV Deshpande spoke on the formation of the new taluks and said that the state government will resurvey lands and properties in the state using advanced technologies including drones, along with the Survey of India.

It has been decided to conduct the resurvey of land and properties in five districts including Tumakuru, Hassan, Uttara Kannada, Belagavi, Ramanagara and Bengaluru city in the first phase.

The union government would spend Rs 110 crore to conduct survey in five rural district, while the state government will bear the cost of Rs 15 crore for survey work in Bengaluru city.

Speaking on the issue, Girish Kumar director general survey of India said that Karnataka is the pioneer state to deploy drone and UAVs for survey work in the country. The first phase work would complete in two years, he informed.

Deshpande assured that the 2013 Land Acquisition Act has not been diluted by the state government and fair compensation to be payable to the land losers is ensured.