Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today said the state has received coal linkage of 382 million tonnes and plans are on to have additional generation capacity of 4,000 MW in the next three years.
Replying to demands for grants of various departments and budget discussion in the assembly, he said the supplies would be used for power projects such as Yeramarus, Bellary Thermal Power Station Unit-3 and Yedlapur.
"2,300 MW of generation capacity will be added in the public sector and 1,700 MW in the private sector in the next three years," he said.
The Chief Minister also announced enhancing MLA Local Area Development Fund from the current Rs one crore to Rs two crore.
He said annual state government grants to gram panchayats would be raised by Rs two lakh.
Siddaramaiah announced that new government medical colleges would be set up at Gadag and Gulbarga, in addition to the ones in Chamarajanagar, Koppal, Karwar and Kodagu which he had announced in his budget speech earlier this month.
In the wake of bumper production of milk, the government has decided to provide milk to students from Class I to X thrice a week from August one, the Chief Minister said.
Siddarmaiah also announced that the Government has decided to establish Rural Development and Panchayat Raj university.
He said a chair (study centre) would be created in Mangalore University vis-a-vis social reformer Brahmashri Narayana Guru.
The budget was passed by voice-vote even as the opposition BJP staged a walk-out contending that it was not satisfied by the Government reply, and alleged that many questions raised by the party remained unanswered.
