The Karnataka government aims to develop five major cities in the state as 'safe cities' for residents and plans to spend an estimated Rs 150 crore during the present year, chief minister Siddaramaiah said.
The government plans to spend the money for providing infrastructure in the five major cities such as Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Belgaum and Hubli-Dharwad, so that they become safe cities in the next five years, he said.
He was talking after inaugurating a workshop on "Best International Practices in Building Resilient Cities, here on Monday. "Making a resilient state against disasters requires planning by every department and implementing measures in a systematic manner over a period of time to reduce the impact of hazards. Keeping in view, our government is setting up a Natural Calamities Relief Fund, which would provide for building capital assets and relief in respect of man-made disasters that are not covered under the State Disaster Response Fund guidelines of the government of India," he said.
This fund will be utilised to mitigate hardships arising on account of calamities and to meet the demands of districts as well as for taking up calamities-resistant activities, he said.Transforming the state of Karnataka into a position of sustained resilience against all sorts of disasters, whether man-made or natural is the need of the hour, he added.
"I am happy to inform you that Karnataka is the first state to adopt the Planning Commission's guidelines to plan for disaster management in the country, to create such a Fund by pooling 0.5 per cent of the un-earmarked plan allocations of all such departments, which amounts to Rs 125 crore," the chief minister said. Meanwhile, in order to have adequate preparedness to meet any possible disaster, in the current year's budget, an additional allocation of Rs 100 crore has been made for disaster management, he added.
