Karnataka reserves 25% police posts for women: Governor

 Karnataka has reserved 25 per cent of posts in the state police department for women to ensure gender equality, Governor Vajubhai Vala said on Monday. "My government has approved 25 per cent of posts for women in police recruitment," Vala told the lawmakers in his first address this year to the joint session of the state legislature at Vidhana Soudha in the city centre.

The decision to hire more policewomen was taken four years after the former Congress government earmarked 33 per cent of all jobs to women to avoid gender bias in 2015.

According to the state home department sources, over 16,000 police posts were vacant till the Karnataka High Court directed the state government on July 20 to fill as many of them.

"The Karnataka civil service rule 1978 was amended in October 2015 to increase the quota for women in government jobs to 33 per cent from 30 per cent in the past," said the home official.

The state government has recently amended the labour laws to allow women to work in night shift in factories with adequate safety measures for their protection and welfare.

The state government has also approved implementing the state highway development project (SHDP) phase-4 to improve about 10,000-km of highway over the next 3 years

"The erstwhile Hyderabad-Karnataka region` development project has been renamed as Kalyana Karnataka to reflect the aspirations of the people in the southern state. My government allocated Rs 1,500 crore in the last fiscal (2019-20) and spent Rs 936 crore in the region through the board," Vala told the lawmakers.

To ensure 24-7 quality power supply across the state for domestic, industrial, commercial and agriculture sectors, Vala said the state government had decided to set up 3 more ultra mega renewable energy power parks with 2,500 megawatt (mw) capacity at Bidar, Gadaga and Koppal in the state`s northern regions.

"My government will soon formulate policy to promote standalone and grid-connected solar-powered agricultural pumps," said Vala in his 30-minutes speech in Hindi while the text was in English and Kannada for the members.

Buoyed by the opening up of the Kalaburagi and Bidar airports in the state`s northern region in November and early this month, the state government has decide to build regional airports Hassan, Karwar, Shimoga and Vijayapura.

Besides Bengaluru and Mangaluru international, the state has airports for feeder services at Belagavi, Hubballi, Mysuru.

"A new industrial policy to attract investment, new technologies and create jobs in thousands is being drafted in the run-up to the Invest Karnataka 2020 global summit on November 3-5," the governor added.

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The legislative assembly and council will take the governor`s address for debate and motion of thanks over the next two days.