Chikkamagaluru: Home Minister G Parameshwara on Friday promised to facilitate the early release of the pending Rs 2.19-crore student scholarship funds from the Department of Social Welfare. Presiding over the quarterly Karnataka Development Programmes (KDP) progress review meeting held here, Parameshwara, who is also the district in-charge minister, reacted to the demand of MLA D N Jeevaraj.

The legislator brought it to the notice of the minister that the scholarship funds were pending for last three years, owing to failure to sanction funds as explained by officials. Fellow MLAs from the district, C T Ravi and B B Ningaiah, seconded Jeevaraj’s demand, saying the officials are misleading the minister in this regard.

Following this, Parameshwara, who termed it a serious issue that needs to be dealt with, said, “I fall in the same bracket, as I also pursued education with the aid of scholarship.” Jeevaraj also complained against the Forest Department for unnecessarily troubling the forest dwellers of the Kudremukh National Park in the name of resurvey of properties and crops, although the forest dwellers were willing to come out of the forest seeking rehabilitation. In response, the minister sought a proposal on the basis of the inputs given by range forest officer at Karkala.

The RFO, in his explanation, said that while 91 families have been successfully distributed packages, a proposal to distribute Rs 42 crore to 22 families is pending with the government. While the Department has in its exchequer Rs 180 crore released under various heads, the funds can be diverted towards meeting the demand for rehabilitation package, if the principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) gives permission.

The minister who was peeved over the tardy progress in the construction of community halls, fixed a deadline of March for district social welfare officer Manjunath to finish the works of 52 community halls. The minister was also surprised to know that the sowing activities had touched 87.7% although the district witnessed scarcity of annual rains by 32%. When he sought a reply from joint director of agriculture M C Seetha, the officer clarified that the district had witnessed average rains during the sowing period that came in handy for farmers. But there was scarcity of rain during the month of September and also November.

The officers from both Departments of Agriculture and Horticulture, however, fumbled for words when the elected representatives sought adequate information on the number of farmers having enrolled for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojane and weather-based crop insurance scheme in the district and allied matters.

Following the allegations of another MLA G H Srinivas, the minister directed Deputy Commissioner G Satyavathi to probe into the allegation of tampering with the list of beneficiaries under the borewell scheme and initiate action against the guilty officers in the Dr B R Ambedkar Development Corporation.

The minister also promised to discuss at state-level, following a complaint from elected representatives across party barriers against the manager of Minorities Development Corporation, acting according to his whims and fancies by dropping the list of beneficiaries selected by the MLA-headed committee. It amounts to a breach of rights of MLAs, the representatives complained further.

Parameshwara took engineers attached to Mangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Mescom) and the manager of D Devaraj Urs Development Corporation to task for not providing electricity connection to 276 borewells drilled under Ganga Kalyana Scheme. He also gave the engineers a deadline of March to complete the work.

The minister instructed authorities concerned to drive the rogue elephant that claimed the lives of two people at Banakal in Moodigere taluk into the forest by the month-end. The deputy commissioner was told to submit a plea to reconsider the decision to drop Sringeri-Kerekatte highway development works. Zilla Panchayat vice president Ramaswamy Shettigaddhe, CEO Dr R Ragapriya and SP K Annamalai were present at the meeting.