Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Wednesday announced a hike in the outlay for Hyderabad Karnataka Regional Development Board’s action plan for development of the region from ₹1,500 crore to ₹2,000 crore, following a meeting with legislators.
The meeting was held at the Suvarna Soudha here to review the progress of development of Hyderabad Karnataka region, which is being implemented through the board.
The meeting was also held to seek suggestions of all legislators from the region, including MLCs, on taking effective measures in redressing the regional imbalance and ensuring that the most backward region comes on a par with other developed places in the State.
Suggestions
K.C. Kondaiah, MLC, who also attended the meeting, told The Hindu that he has given a list of suggestions for strengthening the board and also enabling it to function effectively to serve the purpose for which it has been established.
He said that he underlined the need for appointment of a permanent chairman to the board; establish a circle office of Superintending Engineer attached to the board to expedite the process of preparing proposals and executing it; and appointment of Assistant Executive Engineers in each of the six districts, among other things.
Mr. Kondaiah also stressed the need for releasing the entire amount announced in the budget and also ensure that the unutilised amount does not lapse.
“Since 2013-14, the board should have got ₹6,012 crore, while the government sanctioned ₹4,753 crore, of which only ₹2,928 crore has been released. Though the rules say that the unutilised amount would not lapse, a rider has been put stating that the unutilised amount beyond 20% will lapse. I have requested the Chief Minister to issue appropriate instructions to ensure that the funds do not lapse and help fill up the gap in development expeditiously,” he said adding that the response of the Chief Minister was positive.
Statehood demand
The State government had come under fire over the administrative and development issues of Hyderabad Karnataka region in the Council on Tuesday. Raising the matter, Mr. Kondaiah had said that even the annual budgetary allocation was not being released fully. Linking the development of the region to Cabinet portfolios, he had said that in the present government 11 portfolios have been allocated to Old Mysore region leaving only five ministries to the MLAs of Hyderabad Karnataka. If the “disparity” continued, a situation might arise where people of the region might demand statehood, he had said.
