Cabinet to take up cloud seeding in three river basin areas

The State Cabinet on Wednesday decided to take up cloud seeding immediately, at an estimated cost of Rs. 30 crore, for 60 days.

Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs T.B. Jayachandra, who briefed presspersons after a Cabinet meeting, said Hoysala Project Pvt. Ltd. would take up cloud seeding in three river basins  Cauvery, Malaprabha and Tungabhadra.

As the State failed to receive enough rainfall, the government decided to take up cloud seeding immediately, he said. Earlier, the S.M. Krishna government went for cloud seeding following severe drought in 2002.

Two firms participated in the bid and Hoysala Project Pvt. Ltd. bagged the project. The Development Commissioner of the government would monitor the project.

A few days ago, Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said a detailed project report was prepared and a committee comprising cloud seeding experts and other experts from the Indian Institute of Science and the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre had been formed to oversee the process.

The State Cabinet has cleared an amendment to the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) rules for allotting lands on 10-year lease-cum-sale instead of 99-year lease basis.

Ten-year lease-cum-sale would be applicable only for land parcels less than 2 acres. A meeting of the State Cabinet, presided by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, on Wednesday took the decision to drop the stiff clause of 99-year lease for allotment of land or plots to industries and infrastructure projects.

Prior to 2014, the State government had fixed tenure of 10-year lease-cum-sale for land allotted for industrial activity. Due to severe shortage of land for industrial activity and also as land was getting diverted for purposes other than industries, the government in 2014 brought in an amendment and increased the lease period to 30 years, and subsequently to 99 years. Industry and trade bodies had been opposing the 99-year lease period.

Jayachandra said the State would get seven more super specialty hospitals to improve the quality of health services in rural areas. The Cabinet gave administrative approval for setting up super specialty hospitals at Davangere, Kanakapura, Tumakuru, Vijayapura, and Kolar at a cost of Rs 25 crore each.