MLAs from North Karnataka, cutting across party affiliations, have expressed their anguish over the neglect of North Karnataka by the successive governments resulting in underdevelopment of the region.
Initiating a special discussion devoted to North Karnataka in the Legislative Assembly here on Tuesday, Jagadish Shettar, former Chief Minister and BJP leader, said that successive governments in the State have only been showing lip sympathy assuring development of the northern districts.
Allocation mismatch
Citing instances, he said that his suggestion to transfer around six-eight departments to Suvarana Soudha in Belagavi had not been implemented. He blamed the non-cooperation of bureaucrats in this regard, though the government appeared to be willing to do so.
He also referred to the mismatch in allocation, release and utilisation of funds for development of North Karnataka for redressing regional imbalance as per the recommendations of Dr. Nanjundappa.
Rajkumar Patil Telkur, Sedam MLA, narrated the plight of Hyderabad-Karnatak region and said that even after special status for the region was granted under Article 371 (J), nearly 30,000 posts were still vacant and urged the government to fill the posts in a time-bound manner and if steps to set things right were not initiated, the demand for statehood for the region would become louder, he cautioned.
BJP member A.S. Patil Nadalli said that the allocation of funds for development of North Karnataka was being curtailed systematically. Reeling out statistics department-wise on the allocation of funds for North Karnataka and South Karnataka, he said that a lot of injustice was being meted out to North Karnataka as far as irrigation projects were concerned.
Congress MLA Pratapgouda regretted that the issue of underdevelopment was being discussed time and again on the floor of the Legislature but the outcome had not been tangible.
