Suvarna Soudha, a rallying point for struggle against regional imbalances

The Suvarna Soudha here has become a rallying point for agitations against regional imbalances and in support of demands for expediting the process of development and progress, though the facilities in the building are yet be fully utilised.

None of the six legislature sessions held here since 2006 has been free from protests from associations and organisations representing farmers, contract and daily wage workers, advocates, students, school and college teachers, Kannada activists, doctors serving on contract basis and so on. Some of these protests took violent turns and a debt-ridden sugarcane grower committed suicide at the site of a protest in front of the soudha when the winter session was in progress in 2013.

Though the decision to set up the soudha was taken by the Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government headed by H.D. Kumarswamy at the peak of the tension on the boundary dispute pursued by the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti and the Maharashtra government, it eventually helped the people of the north Karnataka region to present their woes and remind the government of how they had been victims of alleged regional discrimination and imbalances.

Though many justify the reasons behind demands for Statehood for the region, BJP leader Mahantesh M. Kavatagimath, MLC, pointed that the setting up of the soudha had forced the government to start listening to the grievances of the people and take the problems and issues of the region seriously. So much that the winter sessions of the legislature is now a permanent feature and the government is bound to make holding of such sessions here meaningful and purposeful by expediting pending works and taking up new ones. It is for these reasons that some additional funds have started flowing into Belagavi district and other parts of the region. The soudha is serving some purpose and the government is bound to take more steps for its optimum utilisation as a centre for a progressive change, he said. The soudha stands as a symbol of regional aspirations, Mr. Kavatagimath added.