From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Apr 24: At a time when Karnataka is reeling under the surge in Covid positive cases during the Second Wave of the pandemic, seven ministers under the leadership of Deputy Chief Minister and Higher Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, who is also the district in-charge for Ramanagara, have come together on Saturday to hold a joint press conference announcing a manifesto for the Ramanagara and Channapatna civic bodies for the election being held on April 27.

Apart from the Deputy Chief Minister, who held the virtual media conference to release the party manifesto for the forthcoming civic polls, Tourism Minister C P Yogeshwar, Municipal Administration Minister M T B Nagaraj, Urban Development Minister Byrathi Basavaraj, Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr K Sudhakar, Youth and Sports Minister A Narayana Gowda, Sericulture and Horticulture Minister R Shankar and Bengaluru Central MP P C Mohan participated. Handicrafts Development Corporation Chairman Raghavendra Beluru also joined in the press meet to announce the measures contemplated for the artisans of Channapatna.

The twin cities of Ramanagara and Channapatna will be developed completely and the Ramanagara civic body will coverted into a city corporation in the next two years, Dr Narayan said and said a detailed project report for the underground drainage system for the twin cities will be prepared.

The foundation stone for the building of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences will be laid soon after the elections at Ramanagara and the work will be completed in 24 months, and the city will be provided with suburban railway system.

A tourism circuit for Ramanagara and scientific waste disposal system besides a well-equipped stadium for Ramanagara were the other announcements made by Dr Narayan.

DCM reviews Covid situation in Ramanagara

The Deputy Chief Minister also held a review meeting with the elected representatives and district administration of Ramanagara on the Covid 19 pandemic and asked the administration to be very vigilant in the next two months. Any dereliction of duty will be dealt with strictly, he said.

Dr Narayan said the Ramanagara district was presently in the position of ensuring 400 beds for Covid patients besides Covid care centres in all taluks with 100 beds each. The district hospital had 200 beds while Rajarajeshwari Hospital had another 600 beds and Dayanand Sagar Hospital has agreed to provide another additional 100 beds while talks are on to get 500 beds from the hospital. The district has sufficient number of beds available for the treatment of Covid patients, he said.

He stressed the need for conducting regular tests in the preliminary stages so as to control the spread of the pandemic and promised to provide all support from the State Government.

Ramanagara Lok Sabha Member D K Suresh, MLAs Anitha Kumaraswamy, Ravi, A Devegowda, Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kumar, District Health Officer Dr Nirajan, Superintendent of Police Girish and other officials attended the meeting.