Vehicle numbers increase in Bengaluru
Bengaluru’s vehicle numbers has increased to 80 lakhs; with this, the city has overtaken Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai in terms of the number of vehicles. Now Bengaluru is second only to Delhi, which has 1.5 crore vehicles, according to Transport Commissioner V P Ikkeri. Bengaluru’s 10,000 km of road length is considerably lower than Delhi ‘s 30,000 km.
The total number of vehicles in Karnataka has now increased to 2.10 crore, Ikkeri said. Since five to six lakh vehicles are added each year to the city, the number of vehicles in the Bengaluru metropolitan area is likely to cross one crore in another three years.
Source: Deccan Herald
Restricting admission to unaided schools under RTE helps students: State to HC
Underprivileged students admitted to unaided private schools under RTE Act face difficulty continuing their schooling after Class 8, said the state government to the Karnataka High Court. After the age of 14, students are not eligible for reimbursement of fees by the government, as per the RTE Act.
However, the amendment to the Karnataka RTE Rules, which allows admission to an unaided school under RTE only if there is no government or aided school in the neighbourhood, addresses this issue, submitted the government. The amendment ensures that students can continue their education in government or aided schools, said the government. Government made these arguments at the hearing of a PIL that questioned the amended rules restricting admission to unaided schools under RTE. The money that the government saves by implementing the amended Rules would be used to improve facilities in government schools as well, the government said.
The state government had spent more than Rs 1,000 crore to reimburse fees for the RTE quota seats in unaided schools from 2012-13 to 2018. In 2018-19, the amount payable as reimbursement of fees to unaided schools works out to about Rs 700 crore.
Source: The Hindu
Elevated corridor will affect 1131 properties
The proposed elevated corridor project, to be built over more than 102 kms, will require 56.89 hectares of land and will impact about 1131 properties, according to the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report drawn up by the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL). The EIA is part of the final feasibility report on the project that was released to the public.
The identified properties include 209 residential, 577 commercial, and 32 religious structures. The KRDCL will have to incur an expenditure of Rs 11,555 crore to acquire the properties.
The report said that of the 56.89 ha of land needed, 17.76 ha is privately owned, 33.52 ha is government land, 2.54 ha is defence land and 3.07 ha of land belongs to the central government. The project will be taken up in four phases.
Source: The Hindu
[Compiled by Revathi Siva Kumar]