Over 1.5L crop loans waived till January 11: K'taka Guv

The state government has waived 1.1 lakh crop loans taken from co-operative banks and 58,000 commercial bank loans till January 11 this year, said Governor Vajubhai Vala, addressing the Republic Day celebrations here on Saturday.

An amount of Rs 876 crore has been released towards this, he said. Showering of rose petals on the dais from an Army helicopter marked the 70th Republic Day celebrations, at the Manekshaw Parade Grounds. Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and other dignitaries were present on the dais. After hoisting the Tricolour, the governor went around in an open jeep to receive the guard of honour from different contingents. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken a jibe at Kumaraswamy, saying that the loan waiver had benefited only 800 farmers.

The next day, Kumaraswamy clarified that 60,000 farmers had benefited by the end of December 2018.

Vala began his address saying, “The state was confronted with floods and landslides in Kodagu and parts of Malnad and coastal districts in August 2018, causing severe damage to public and private infrastructure. The state and the central government took up relief measures on a war-footing. The state government has provided a compensation of Rs 7 lakh to every family which lost its loved ones. It also took measures to construct 840 houses for the affected families,” said Vala.

The governor said, “The goal of the state is to bring all children of school-going age to the classroom. Among 14,192 children who were out of school, 10,181 were brought to mainstream education this year,” he said. “The government will start 176 schools and standard 1 to 12 (primary, high school and pre-university colleges) will be integrated.”

Remedial classes

Not only this, 25 days of special remedial classes will be held for students to learn English, Mathematics and Science across 549 centres, said Vala.
“Under the Chief Minister’s Kaushalya Karnataka Yojana, training will be provided to the youth in skill development. A mobile app called ‘Koushalkar’ has been launched for training unemployed youth,” he said.

Vala said the state stood first in the country in attracting investments. “We have approved 1,958 projects with an investment of Rs 3.49 lakh crore under the industrial policy 2014-19. This will help provide jobs to 10.28 lakh people,” he said.

The governor said close to 73,000 people have benefited from the Ayushman Bharat and Arogya Karnataka schemes so far. “The state government is spending Rs 29,000 crore for various programmes for the socio-economic benefits of people belonging to backward classes such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes,” he said.

“The aim of the government is to increase the green cover and we have undertaken ‘Hasiru Karnataka’, a programme to plant saplings along roadways, in open spaces, embankments and agriculture lands,” he said.

The governor said Nirbhaya centres were being established across police commissionerates to ensure safety of women. Following the address, the contingents took part in a march-past, followed by a colourful cultural programme.