‘We don’t support plan to prevent panel’s entry into city’

It will deprive people the chance to present demands: samiti

The Hyderabad Karnatakada Horatagala Samanvaya Samiti (HKHSS) has said that it does not support the threat issued by the former Minister Vaijnath Patil’s Hyderabad Karnataka Horata Samiti (HKHS) that it will prevent the Cabinet subcommittee, headed by Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister H.K. Patil, from visiting the city on July 2.

The panel is scheduled to hear suggestions by social organisations and the public on the drafting of rules to implement the provisions of Article 371.

The HKHS had said that the committee members would not be allowed to visit Gulbarga and Hospet in Bellary district if the State government failed to postpone the announcement of the seat matrix for medical and engineering courses for the 2013-14 academic year till the quantum of reservation for students from the Hyderabad Karnataka region was finalised.

President of the HKHSS Laxman Dasti and office-bearers of other Kannada organisations told presspersons here on Tuesday that though they agreed with this demand, they did not support the decision to prevent the committee members from entering Gulbarga. “If the members are denied entry, it will deprive the people of the region an opportunity to present their demands,” he said.

Demands

Mr. Dasti said that the samiti, after a series of discussions with leaders of different organisations, decided to seek 100 per cent reservation for students of Hyderabad Karnataka in professional colleges in the region. The samiti also wanted 25 per cent of seats in colleges elsewhere in the State to be reserved for students of the region.

He said that the samiti, during its meeting with the Cabinet subcommittee, would also demand a minimum of 25 per cent reservation of all posts in government and quasi government departments, boards and corporations and government organisations for the people of the region.

“We will also demand that recruitment to government departments, from Class A to Class D posts, should be held at the district-level. Centralised recruitment will not do justice to the people of the region.”

Mr. Dasti said that Rs. 35,000 crore should be allocated to the proposed statutory development board for the region. He said that 70 per cent of the allocation should come from the Union government and the remaining 30 per cent should be provided by the State government.

He said that the samiti leaders would tour all six districts in the Hyderabad Karnataka region to create awareness among Kannada and social organisations so that their demands could be presented as one.