CHALLAKERE (CHITRADURGA DIST.): A delegation from the State will call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding special facilities to backward regions of the State on the lines of Telangana in Andhra Pradesh by amending Article 371 of the Constitution, Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh has said.

Addressing a rally of party workers at Challakere here on Sunday, Mr. Dharam Singh made it clear that the naxalite problem can be tackled through socio-economic development of the naxal-prone regions.

"I do not believe in violence. There are around 2,000 families in the forests, who need to be rehabilitated. We are looking into the problem to try put an end to blood shed. A meeting of Chief Ministers has been called by the Union Home Minister on September 19," Mr. Dharam Singh said. Contradicting the claims of the Janata Dal (Secular) about giving Scheduled Tribe tag to Nayaka community, Mr. Dharam Singh categorically said that such a relief was granted by the P.V. Narasimha Rao Government. The leaders of the Janata Dal (S) had claimed that the party president H.D. Deve Gowda had suggested the then Prime Minister Chandrashekar to include Nayaka community in the Scheduled Tribe list.

The Chief Minister also said that he will initiate action on the recommendations of the report on regional imbalance. Addressing the rally, N.Y. Hanumanthappa, MP, urged the Chief Minister to take up Upper Bhadra Project, which will solve the water woes of Chitradurga district.

Former Minister C.K. Jaffer Sheriff, Union Minister of State for Planning M.V. Rajashekaran, former Ministers H. Vishwanath, D.K. Shivakumar, Kagodu Thimmappa and Allam Veerabhadrappa, legislators Dinesh Gundurao and D. Sudhakar, Tejaswini Sriramesh, MP, chairman of Central Silk Board H. Hanumanthappa, and president of District Congress Committee R. Manjunath, spoke on the occasion.

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