Karnataka govt to stick to its decision to completely reject Kasturirangan report on Western Ghats

Bengaluru: In response to a draft notification by the Centre on the K Kasturirangan report, the Cabinet on Thursday decided to stand by its earlier stand of completely rejecting the Kasturirangan report.

Dated July 31, the draft classified part of Western Ghats in six states, including Karnataka, as Ecologically Sensitive Areas (EAS). In all, the Cabinet discussed 28 matters, of which 26 were approved.

The Cabinet also gave in-principle approval to develop the University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) on 50 acres of land on Bangalore University’s Jnanabharathi campus at a cost of Rs 500 crore. The government’s grant for this plan will be Rs 100 crore.

Under the Rs 29.13 crore granted to the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), the Cabinet gave administrative approval to purchase 21 air-conditioned e-buses.

It was decided to provide administrative approval for a project worth Rs 200 crore for flood control and flood management for Bennihalla up to the confluence of Malaprabha River under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF),

The other decisions included grant of Rs 40.79 crore to upgrade 74 Adarsha schools in the state into PU colleges in science and commerce streams.

The Cabinet approved the the Karnataka Anand Marriages Registration Rules, 2024. The rules clarify the ambiguity about the marriages of Sikh community people.

Earlier, Sikh marriages were registered under the Hindu Marriage Act and the marriage certificate mentioned them as Hindus. Thus, there was confusion when they travelled to other countries.

Anand Marriage Act, 1909, has been enforced by the Central government and the Cabinet’s move aims to frame rules accordingly, the Law Minister H K Patil said.