From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Jun 21: With the increase in the milk production and procurement in the State by the Karnataka Milk Federation, the State government has decided to extend the Ksheera Bhagya scheme from the present three days to five days in a week.
Milk is presently being supplied to milk to 1.04 crore schoolchildren studying in all rural government schools from Standard I to X and also to those in the anganwadis.
Karnataka’s Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra, who is also in charge of the Animal Husbandry portfolio, said milk production has increased from 43 lakh litres in 2012 to 63 lakh litres a day in June 2014.
Increase in the incentive price from Rs 2 to Rs 4 a litre and pre-monsoon showers contributed to the hike in milk production.
The incentive price of Rs 4 per litre has been costing the State exchequer Rs 13 crore a day, he said.
The KMF has been supplying nearly 20 lakh litres of milk a day to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh for production for powder.
Milk would be supplied five days a week to school children once the KMF maintained sufficient stock of powder, he said.
A sum of Rs 80 crore has been sanctioned for expansion of a powder manufacturing plant at Chennapatna in Hassan district and Rs 200 crore to set up a new plant in Mysore.
The plant would become financial viable if they able to get at least 5 to 6 lakh litres of milk per day, Jayachandra said.
The State Government has decided to constitute a panel of experts to suggest amendments to the Karnataka Town and Country Planning (KTCP) Act to make Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) more transparent in Bangalore and other cities.
Members of the panel would be experts in urban development and property related subjects.
The panel would study loopholes in the TDR and address all contentious issues relating to it to make the development rights implementable in the future.
The first amendment to the Act was brought in 2005 and a lot of changes have taken place since then.
Land losers are coming out with new problems related to compensation and Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for their land.
Noting that TDR was not successful in Bangalore, the Minister said the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has issued TDR for 15.75 lakh sq mts (square meters) but actual utilisation was 5.29 lakh sq mts and the rest 10.72 lakh sq mts remained unutilised.
In Mangalore, TDR was issued to 81,484 sq mts but actual utilisation was 54,323 sq mts.