Excise Minister and district in-charge, Satish L. Jarkiholi sounded a discordant note on the long-pending issue of creating new district(s) out of Belagavi stating that the issue of splitting the district was not before the State government at the moment.
His remarks comes in sharp contrast with the recent statements of Revenue Minister V. Srinivas Prasad that the district would be bifurcated to carve out a new district with either Chikodi or Gokak as headquarters.
Such contrasting statements by ministers of cabinet suggest of communication gap and lack of consensus on such serious issues.
At a press meet here on Monday, Mr. Jarkiholi said two proposals would be submitted to the government to carve two new districts with Chikodi and Gokak as headquarters considering persisting demands of the local people.
Stadium
The minister indicated of constructing a new district stadium in the city, as the lease period of the existing stadium would expire after ten years.
When contacted, a senior official at the department of sports and youth services said the department had take n the stadium on lease from the KLE Society, which would expire in 2026.
Encroachments
He said the nearly 60% of encroachments of five main roads had been cleared by the Belagavi City Corporation. All these five roads would be widened, for which a sum of Rs.100 crore was expected to be sanctioned soon. The Public Works Department engineers had been asked for demarcation of these roads to start widening works.