Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced on Thursday that the Kalyana Karnataka Regional Development Board (KKRDB) will be constituted within 10 days.
Participating in a debate on issues related to the development of Kalyana Karnataka region, Mr. Bommai said the government would take measures to fill about 20,000 vacancies through direct recruitment. He also announced that the ban on new recruitments by government departments would be lifted in the region.
He was responding to the concern expressed by members in the Legislative Assembly that reservation in recruitment provided to the region under Article 371(J) was being deprived due to recruitment ban as part of austerity measures on account of COVID-19.
Pointing out that the board had an allocation of about ₹2,000 crore for this year including the opening balance of ₹500 crore from the unspent funds of previous year, he said the board should spend this within March 2022.
Measures would also be taken to re-open IT and Textiles Parks in the region to increase job opportunities, he said, while adding that he had been making efforts to get a new railway division for the region.
Claims by non-locals
Meanwhile, Law Minister J. C. Madhuswamy expressed concern that there was a trend of those hailing from this backward region, but settled in cities like Bengaluru and Mysuru for a long time, trying to misuse the reservation in appointments and promotion by wrongly claiming themselves to be local residents. But after recruitment or promotion, they were using their influence to get a transfer out of this region, he said. Government would take measures to prevent such a trend, he promised.
Earlier, the Opposition members took exception to Planning and Statistics Minister Munirathna trying to reply to the debate on the grounds that he is still new to his department and urged the Chief Minister himself to reply.
Earlier, several members including Priyank Kharge, Eshwar Khandre and Ajay Singh of the Congress accused the State government of step motherly treatment to the Kalyana Karnataka region by not constituting development board and denying sufficient funds for works in the region.
Mr Khandre said more that 30,000 vacancies existed in various government departments in seven districts falls under the Karnataka Kalyana region. In Gulbaga University, for instance, he said out of 36 posts of professors only two were filled.
