Nandi Hills gearing up to host Karnataka Cabinet meeting on June 19
On Friday, representatives of several departments were busy working on the hill when The Hindu visited the spot. A team belonging to the Public Works Department was carrying out the shouldering work on the road leading to the hill. Horticulture Department workers had brought natural lawns to lay in front of a restaurant. They were also arranging ornamental plants brought from the nursery at Lalbagh.
Monkey trouble
'After the Cabinet meeting that was conducted on the Male Mahadeshwara Hills, it is now the turn of Nandi Hills to host the State Cabinet. We have also requested the Forest Department to control the large number of monkeys around here without disturbing them,' said an official of the Horticulture Department.
In 1986, the second SAARC summit, which was attended by the then Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi, was held at Nehru Nilaya on Nandi Hills. Controlling monkeys back then was also a Herculean task.
The Cabinet meeting on June 19 will be conducted in the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation's (KSTDC) Mayura Pine Top restaurant. The restaurant is getting a complete makeover as everything from the washrooms to the air conditioning systems were being fixed on Friday.
'We are upgrading our basic infrastructure. This will be a milestone for the KSTDC as we will be hosting the State Cabinet meeting on our property. We are even increasing the bandwidth of our Wi-Fi to ensure uninterrupted live streaming for media and for any other official work,' said Manoj Kumar, manager of Mayura Pine Top.
The hall that is being prepared for the meeting will be occupied by Ministers, while separate locations will be provided for officers on special duty, personal assistants, and others. The hall on the ground floor of the restaurant offers an uninterrupted view of the Chickballapur town.
Demands of the district
With the Cabinet meeting being hosted in Chickballapur, there is a lot of expectations about big announcements for the district.
MLA for Chickballapur Pradeep Eshwar, who had come to oversee the preparations on Nandi Hills on Friday, told The Hindu that decisions on many major projects of the district would be taken at the meeting.
'As we are famous for flowers and vegetables, we had requested that the international flower market should not be set up in a public-private partnership. The government has agreed to invest the full amount of ₹150 crore for it, and it will mostly be announced on that day. We have also requested that the storage capacity of Jakkalamadagu reservoir be increased to ensure adequate water supply during summer months,' Mr. Eshwar said.
Hopes of ropeway
He also said the government might take a call on proposing the Bhoga Nandishwara temple as a UNESCO World Heritage site to attract more foreign tourists to the district. 'While we think that something related to the Yettinahole project will be announced, the final approval for the Nandi ropeway project will definitely be given,' the MLA said.
Nandi Hills has been closed for the public from 6 p.m. on June 16 to 5 a.m. on June 20 in view of the Cabinet meeting.
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