Bangalore: The State Government has decided to go ahead with the establishment of a horticultural university at Bagalkot ignoring the opposition to the move from several former Vice-Chancellors of the University of Agricultural Sciences and experts of the Institution of Agricultural Technologists.

Minister for Horticulture Shashikanth Naik, Minister for Medical Education V.S. Acharya and Minister for Home M.P. Prakash, briefing presspersons after a meeting of the Cabinet here on Monday, said the Government had also decided to go ahead with a proposal to establish another University of Agricultural Sciences at Raichur to serve the Hyderabad Karnataka region. A Cabinet subcommittee had been constituted for the purpose and Mr. Prakash would be its chairman.

Mr. Naik said the Government had consulted several experts and held discussions with various institutions and organisations before deciding to start a horticultural university. A budgetary allocation of Rs. 15 crore had been made and a special officer (V.P. Baligar) was recently appointed.

He said Karnataka was in the forefront in horticulture with horticultural crops grown on over 16 lakh hectares. Total horticultural production was over 130 lakh tonnes a year and the produce was worth Rs. 9,000 crore. It accounted for 40 per cent of the total value of agricultural production in the State.

Mr. Prakash said the Cabinet approved an Ordinance to set up a law university at Dharwad to be forwarded to Governor T.N. Chaturvedi for his assent. The Government had sought to move a Bill in the last session of the legislature, but owing to lack of time the Bill could not be passed.

The Cabinet approved the request of the Department of Medical Education to hand over three government hospitals in Shimoga, Raichur and Bidar to serve as teaching hospitals for the government medical colleges being set up in the three districts.

Of the six new government medical colleges, the ones in Belgaum, Mandya and Hassan have started functioning. The colleges Shimoga, Raichur and Bidar would start functioning from the coming academic year. An inspection team of the Medical Council of India, which recently visited the proposed colleges, had referred to the lack of teaching hospitals.

Mr. Prakash said the Cabinet approved a one-time settlement scheme of the Karnataka State Financial Corporation to recover a large part of its dues from borrowers. Under the scheme, entrepreneurs who had borrowed up to Rs. 10 lakh would be eligible for a total or partial waiver of interest, and they would have to repay the loan within a specified period.

Pending files

With reference to reports that the number of pending files had substantially increased, Mr. Prakash said the number of pending files had decreased by nearly 70,000 from December 31, 2002 (1.94 lakh files). The number of files pending as on April 30, 2007 was 1.29 lakh.

The Cabinet also approved the construction of a satellite towns ring road by the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the Public Works Department. Work would be executed in four packages.

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