DHARAM SINGH TO TOUR KODAGU;

Madikeri August 23, 2007

Former Chief Minister Dharam Singh will tour Kodagu on this 27th.

Singh will arrive at Somwarpet on 27th and will visit flood hit areas and verify rain damages. He will also visit Virajpet on the same evening and visit rain damaged spots.

He will spend the night at Madikeri and will move to Puttur the next day.

MYSORE – BANTWAL HIGH WAY WORK BEGINS;

Rupees 104 crore, Mysore – Bantwal road work has begun from Kushalnagar after Chief Minister Kumarswamy inaugurated it.

The work has begun from Kushalanagar and will go upto Sampaje for about 60 KMs in the first phase.

The engineers of RNN Company told that the high way will be completed by 2009 August. The road will have 681 curves upto Sampaje and the road will be done with scientific measurement and calculations. The workers have begun to cut down the road side trees from Kushalnagar.

The Mangalore road is totally dilapidated at present and people hope that they will be able to drive through a new highway soon.

RASTA ROKO AT PONNAMPET;

The auto drivers association conducted rasta roko at Ponnampet today and urged immediate repair of the badly damaged roads.

President Chandra Shekar told that the road between Ponnampet and Kunda is full of pot holes and the department concerned has been ignoring their repeated requests to fill the. They stated that the road is unmotorable and passengers cannot sit in the autoriksha to travel in that road. Busses have stopped plying in that road, causing inconvenience to residents and students living in that stretch.

RS.15 CRORES PROJECT PROPOSED TO SHIFT ELEPHANTS;

Deputy Forest officer Mallesh today said that the forest department has submitted a project of rupees fifteen crores to government to shift elephants from Kodagu.

Addressing a meet the press programme organized here by press club, he said that the elephants are facing a very difficult situation in Kodagu due to habitat loss, shortage of food and decreasing tree cover.

Mallesh disclosed that about five people were killed by elephants in Kodagu in three months period and over 25 injured seriously. It is a national disaster and a combined effort of people’s representatives, politicians and government should find a permanent solution to avoid this, he said.

The rupees fifteen crore project will demand more compensation to the family of the dead, recommend solar fences to all the agriculturists in fifty percent discount basis, free solar fence to poor farmers, shifting or taming the wild elephants.

Mallesh also said that a proposal in par with the insurance policy which exists in western countries is submitted to government for approval. According to this proposal, forest department will identify elephant attack prone villages and pay insurance premium. Amount will be drawn from this account as and when a death takes place and their family would be given handsome cash as compensation.

The forest department has also requested the government to invite a central team to study the human – elephant conflict in the district.

President of the press club, H.T.Anil presided the meeting.