Northern Karnataka let down again
The nascent KDF government led by Mr. Kumaraswamy, has proved to be in no way different from its predecessor as for as giving a just deal to the Northern Karnataka.
The budget presented by the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. Yediyurappa has again byepassed the Northern Karnataka in the same manner in which the Congress led governments had done in the past. This is despite the initial hopes raised by the protestations of commitment to the cause of the Northern Karnataka by none other than the two top duos, the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister. What is more galling has been that the BJP, which received the biggest ever political patronage from the region, has been instrumental in riding roughshod over the aspirations of the people of the Northern Karnataka for legitimate share in the developmental pie in Karnataka.. The crucial issue as for as the Northern Karnataka is concerned has been the implementation of the Nanjundappa Committee on Removal of Regional Imbalances. The Committee, which had been appointed during the early period of the Congress regime of Mr. Krishna (1999-2004), had suggested an additional investment of Rs. 15,000 crores over a seven year period to bridge the gap in the development and provide a level playing field for all the regions in the state. It had made a detailed taluka wise study of the sectors of backwardness which needed to be filled and had categorise the taluks into the developed, backwards and most backward taluks. But unfortunately, its pan Karnataka image was lost in the controversy and the Nanjundappa Committee report came to be dubbed as a report of the Northern Karnataka development. It was true that the Northern Karnataka would have been the greatest of the beneficiaries of the implementation of the report, which had as its focus the entire state and not any particular region.
Though the Committee had been specifically constituted to look into the grievances of Northern Karnataka, Dr Nanjundappa, chose to extend the scope to the entire state, brought all the taluks under the purview of the study and presented a comprehensive blue print for the development. What all was required for the state government was to provide for the additional investment and take up the implementation straightaway.
Krishna government which was initially enthusiastic about the ending the grievance of the region, suddenly turned cold feet. It coincided with the downfall of Mr. H K Patil, the then Karnataka Minister for Water Resources, one of the strong votaries of the Nanjundappa Committee report in the Krishna durbar.
It appeared that the antipathy to the report was not confined to the political leadership but also extended to the administrative spheres and the top echelons of bureaucracy, who never liked Dr Nanjundappa consistently refused to take cognizance of the report. This continued when a person from Northern Karnataka, Mr. B S Patil, became the Chief Secretary of the state for sometime. It was doubtful whether anybody in the government had seriously read the report.
Mr. Nanjundappa desired that the legislators should lobby for the implementation of the report. But it never materialized. No legislators from the Northern Karnataka had chosen to study the report and talk about it. The apathy was all pervasive.
.
Krishna would talk in enigma and riddles whenever questioned by the newsmen about the implementation of the Nanjundappa Committee report successfully managed to shelve the report
Then came the Dharam Singh government after 2004 elections. Mr. Dharam Singh also toed the line of ambivalence of his predecessor. Every time the question was raised he would say that the State had approached the Centre for assistance and it would be taken up the moment the Central assistance was made available. Now it has been the turn of the new government to prevaricate on the issue.
The State Governments have been only tinkering with the report when ever pushed to be wall to demonstrate their phony concern and commitment to the report. It would take one or two isolated issues for implementation and skirt the main issue of providing allocation to bridge the gap in the development.
The interesting aspect is that all the political parties, as a rule, have been shying away from the question of giving a new deal to the Northern Karnataka. May be lack of assertiveness on the part of the people of the region, has led to the complacent attitude. Another contributing factor has been the absence of the political leadership in the region. There was one leader of promise in the personality of Mr. H K Patil,. But his action in breaking the solidarity with the fellow regional leaders like Mr. Kharge and Mr. Dharam Singh on the eve of the 1999 election and support the candidature of Mr. Krishna for the post of the presidentship of the PCC and as the Chief Minister after 1999 election, has proved to be politically disastrous. After taking advantage, Mr. Krishna slowly clipped the wings of Mr. Patil, openly snubbed him by dropping his supporters, and unceremoniously taking away his portfolio of water resources. It has been difficult for Mr Patil to pick up the thread again.
(ends) 23:36 hrs,. March 22, 2006
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Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Raw deal
As expected the present government has proved to be in no way different from the predecessor government as for as giving the proverbial raw deal to the Northern Karnataka.
The Northern Karnataka finds itself literally cheated very subtlety by the new rulers, the most guilty party being the BJP, with the JDS being comparatively liberal. Of the twelve nominees of the BJP including the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. Yediyurappa, only four belong to the Northern Karnataka This is the reward that the BJP has chose to pay to the Northern Karnataka region, which has helped the party to become the single largest political party in the 224 member Legislative Assembly. The bulk of the support for the party has come from the Bombay Karnataka sub region. The BJP has proved to be too ungrateful to the Northern Karnataka, which has given the party the political clout that it needed in the present reckoning. It has sought to accommodate the nominees of the southern Karnataka region in general and the nominees from the Karnataka Legislative Council in particular at the cost of the Northern Karnataka.
On the other hand the JDS has been able to give a good deal to the Northern region. Of the ten nominees from the JDS quota, as many as six come from Northern Karnataka. This is notwithstanding the poor patronage it got in the hustings from the region...
But the story of discrimination becomes more palpable when it comes to the distribution of the portfolios. Both the parties, have kept major portfolios have been kept away from the purview of the nominees from the Northern Karnataka.
Consider the portfolios which have been allocated to the Northern Karnataka from the region, namely Primary and Secondary Education (Mr. Basavaraj Horatti), Revenue (Mr. Jagadish Shettar), Labour and Minority Affairs (Mr. Iqbal Ansari), Agricultural Marketing (Mr. Sharanabasappa Darshnapur), Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (Mr. C M Udashi), Youth Services and Sports (Mr. Alkod Hanumanthappa), Food and Civil Supplies (Govind Karjol), Agriculture (Bandeppa Kashempur), Social Welfare (Balachandra Jarakiholi), Tourism and Textiles (Sriramulu).
The portfolios which are considered as weighty namely, the Home, Urban Development, Public Works, Energy, Large and Medium Industries, Infrastructure Development, Water Resources, Housing, Transport, Small Scale industries to name a few, have been kept out of the purview of the Northern Karnataka. The most glaring have been the manner in which the portfolio of Major Irrigation, has been allotted.
The major irrigation covers the plans for irrigation from the two of the major basins, the Krishna and Cauvery. In the case of Cauvery basin development, there is hardly anything new needs to be done. The Karnataka, has its hand and foot tied by the Cauvery Tribunal as for as the expansion of the irrigation facilities are concerned. One is only waiting for the long awaited verdict from the Tribunal, which is expected to formalise the restrictions already placed on Karnataka.
Under the circumstances, all the hopes of any major breakthrough in the harnessing of the irrigation portfolios now rest with the Krishna basin alone, which lies mainly in the Northern Karnataka region. But this portfolio, has been given to Mr. Eswarappa of the BJP, who belongs to the BJP.
Krishna dispute also stands at a crucial stage. The Karnataka, which has failed to utilize the full share of the allocation of water given under the Scheme A of the Bachawat Tribunal, faces the crucial task of saving the unutilized share of water before the Second Tribunal headed by Mr. Brajesh Mishra. And also make out a case for equitable share in the share of the surplus water, which is to be adjudicated. Karnataka needs to tread more carefully before advocating its case before the Tribunal and quicken the pace of the work on the existing ongoing projects.
It may be incidentally mentioned here, that the BJP as an opposition party for years in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Its understanding of the crucial issues pertaining to the Krishna and Cauvery, has been shockingly poor. At no stage, the party had had any clear concept of the issues involved and the interests of the states involved. The party has been cool when ever the state government had got in trouble with the NDA government in matter of clearance for the irrigation projects. How is it expected to handle the crucial sector this times remains to be seen. The new minister has already given expression to his ignorance by making some inappropriate observations on the Cauvery basin projects at Mysore.
The utmost need of the hour for the region is the infrastructural development and the PWD and Infrastructure Development have been kept away from the region.
The only saving grace has been the allocation of the portfolio of the rural development, and both portfolios pertaining to this have come to the two nominees of the Northern Karnataka namely the Udashi and Govind Karjol. But the tragedy here is that the BJP’s commitment to the concept of democratic development, has been only skin deep.
(ends) 07:01 hrs. February 20, 2006
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The Northern Karnataka finds itself literally cheated very subtlety by the new rulers, the most guilty party being the BJP, with the JDS being comparatively liberal. Of the twelve nominees of the BJP including the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. Yediyurappa, only four belong to the Northern Karnataka This is the reward that the BJP has chose to pay to the Northern Karnataka region, which has helped the party to become the single largest political party in the 224 member Legislative Assembly. The bulk of the support for the party has come from the Bombay Karnataka sub region. The BJP has proved to be too ungrateful to the Northern Karnataka, which has given the party the political clout that it needed in the present reckoning. It has sought to accommodate the nominees of the southern Karnataka region in general and the nominees from the Karnataka Legislative Council in particular at the cost of the Northern Karnataka.
On the other hand the JDS has been able to give a good deal to the Northern region. Of the ten nominees from the JDS quota, as many as six come from Northern Karnataka. This is notwithstanding the poor patronage it got in the hustings from the region...
But the story of discrimination becomes more palpable when it comes to the distribution of the portfolios. Both the parties, have kept major portfolios have been kept away from the purview of the nominees from the Northern Karnataka.
Consider the portfolios which have been allocated to the Northern Karnataka from the region, namely Primary and Secondary Education (Mr. Basavaraj Horatti), Revenue (Mr. Jagadish Shettar), Labour and Minority Affairs (Mr. Iqbal Ansari), Agricultural Marketing (Mr. Sharanabasappa Darshnapur), Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (Mr. C M Udashi), Youth Services and Sports (Mr. Alkod Hanumanthappa), Food and Civil Supplies (Govind Karjol), Agriculture (Bandeppa Kashempur), Social Welfare (Balachandra Jarakiholi), Tourism and Textiles (Sriramulu).
The portfolios which are considered as weighty namely, the Home, Urban Development, Public Works, Energy, Large and Medium Industries, Infrastructure Development, Water Resources, Housing, Transport, Small Scale industries to name a few, have been kept out of the purview of the Northern Karnataka. The most glaring have been the manner in which the portfolio of Major Irrigation, has been allotted.
The major irrigation covers the plans for irrigation from the two of the major basins, the Krishna and Cauvery. In the case of Cauvery basin development, there is hardly anything new needs to be done. The Karnataka, has its hand and foot tied by the Cauvery Tribunal as for as the expansion of the irrigation facilities are concerned. One is only waiting for the long awaited verdict from the Tribunal, which is expected to formalise the restrictions already placed on Karnataka.
Under the circumstances, all the hopes of any major breakthrough in the harnessing of the irrigation portfolios now rest with the Krishna basin alone, which lies mainly in the Northern Karnataka region. But this portfolio, has been given to Mr. Eswarappa of the BJP, who belongs to the BJP.
Krishna dispute also stands at a crucial stage. The Karnataka, which has failed to utilize the full share of the allocation of water given under the Scheme A of the Bachawat Tribunal, faces the crucial task of saving the unutilized share of water before the Second Tribunal headed by Mr. Brajesh Mishra. And also make out a case for equitable share in the share of the surplus water, which is to be adjudicated. Karnataka needs to tread more carefully before advocating its case before the Tribunal and quicken the pace of the work on the existing ongoing projects.
It may be incidentally mentioned here, that the BJP as an opposition party for years in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Its understanding of the crucial issues pertaining to the Krishna and Cauvery, has been shockingly poor. At no stage, the party had had any clear concept of the issues involved and the interests of the states involved. The party has been cool when ever the state government had got in trouble with the NDA government in matter of clearance for the irrigation projects. How is it expected to handle the crucial sector this times remains to be seen. The new minister has already given expression to his ignorance by making some inappropriate observations on the Cauvery basin projects at Mysore.
The utmost need of the hour for the region is the infrastructural development and the PWD and Infrastructure Development have been kept away from the region.
The only saving grace has been the allocation of the portfolio of the rural development, and both portfolios pertaining to this have come to the two nominees of the Northern Karnataka namely the Udashi and Govind Karjol. But the tragedy here is that the BJP’s commitment to the concept of democratic development, has been only skin deep.
(ends) 07:01 hrs. February 20, 2006
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Friday, February 10, 2006
Expectations of Northern Karnataka
Expectations in Northern Karnataka
Every time a change of guard occurs in Bangalore, the one topic which is invariably discussed is whether the change in government augurs for the Northern Region getting its legitimate share in the development pie. And invariably every government ends its tenure by promising the moon to the people and letting them down badly at the end in the bargain.
This time also, the change in the stewardship has triggered off the discussions and had given to rise lot of expectations that some tangible good may happen to the region. This is based on two essential premises. Firstly the majority partner of the coalition government – the BJP draws its major sustenance from the Northern Karnataka region in general and that of Bombay Karnataka sub region in particular. It is expected to consolidate its position by taking up the programmes, which are dear to the heart of the people of the region.
And the Janata Dal (S) under Mr. Kumaraswamy appears to have realized the heavy political price it has paid for ignoring Northern Karnataka all these days and pooh-poohing its aspirations. The JDS has hardly been able to carve out any tangible base in the region, mainly because of the pronounced anti Northern Karnataka bias of the leadership in general and of Mr. Devegowda in particular. Mr. Devegowda set in motion the firefighting operations as it were on the eve of the zilla and taluk panchayat elections, by roping in as many lingayat leaders into the party as possible but this has hardly impressed the people of the region. If the JDS wants to continue as a credible political force in the state in the days to come, it has to develop political moorings in Karnataka. Unless the party woos Northern Karnataka, it can’t realize the ambition of coming to power on its own in the days to come. Nobody knows it better than Mr. Kumaraswamy, the new Chief Minister, who appears to be political pragmatists and free from the dogmas and prejudices which were the hall marks of the attitude of his illustrious father.
There is however a fly in the ointment- namely the weak leadership in the region in both the camps. As it is both the top posts in the government, have gone to the people who do not belong to the region and not expected to inspire the confidence in the bonafides of the government. And those from the two parties, who are expected to get into the government, are definitely not people with sufficient political clout. For the JDS, the top most leader is going to be Mr. Basavaraj Horatti, MLC representing teachers constituency, who despite all his involvement in the teachers movement is yet to emerge as a politician of merit and standing. For the BJP its top most candidate who may find berth is Mr. Jagadish Shettar, the present president of the state party. The opportunities, that have come to Shettar, of being the Leader of the Opposition, then the President of the unit and now as a possible minister, have brought him personal luck but he is yet to establish himself as the leader of standing, credibility and guts. He has always proved to be an understudy of Mr. Yediyurappa. And has not been able to come out of the shadow all these days.
Ultimately, if something good has to come to region, it must from the combination of Kumaraswamy and Yediyurappa and not because of any calculated political clout and standing of the politicians from the region. Will the due have the energy and time to follow the Northern Karnataka agenda, remains as a million dollar question?
The problems and unkept promises of Northern Karnataka are in a legion. Typical of the unresolved dilemma has been dithering on the implementation of Nanjundappa Committee report on the removal of the regional imbalance. The Krishna government, which constituted the committee, chose to dither on it and hardly anything was done during the regime of Mr. Dharam Singh, barring the lip sympathy given.
There has been a concerted attempt to misrepresent the implications of the Nanjundappa Committee recommendations. What the Committee had recommended was an additional investment of Rs. 16,000 crores over a seven year period to bridge the gap in the development, not only in the Northern Karnataka region, but also in the entire backward tracks of the state. Per year it comes to an investment of Rs. 2000 crores spread over all the twentyseven districts,. For an economically buoyant state of Karnataka, it should not be a major problem to find this much of money. For want of necessary commitment, the governments of the day have not been able to implement the same.
Can the new government break the voodoo or end up like the predecessors offering excuses for not doing the things rather than take the bull by the horn.
(ends) 23:28 hrs. February 10, 2006
================00000000000=======
Every time a change of guard occurs in Bangalore, the one topic which is invariably discussed is whether the change in government augurs for the Northern Region getting its legitimate share in the development pie. And invariably every government ends its tenure by promising the moon to the people and letting them down badly at the end in the bargain.
This time also, the change in the stewardship has triggered off the discussions and had given to rise lot of expectations that some tangible good may happen to the region. This is based on two essential premises. Firstly the majority partner of the coalition government – the BJP draws its major sustenance from the Northern Karnataka region in general and that of Bombay Karnataka sub region in particular. It is expected to consolidate its position by taking up the programmes, which are dear to the heart of the people of the region.
And the Janata Dal (S) under Mr. Kumaraswamy appears to have realized the heavy political price it has paid for ignoring Northern Karnataka all these days and pooh-poohing its aspirations. The JDS has hardly been able to carve out any tangible base in the region, mainly because of the pronounced anti Northern Karnataka bias of the leadership in general and of Mr. Devegowda in particular. Mr. Devegowda set in motion the firefighting operations as it were on the eve of the zilla and taluk panchayat elections, by roping in as many lingayat leaders into the party as possible but this has hardly impressed the people of the region. If the JDS wants to continue as a credible political force in the state in the days to come, it has to develop political moorings in Karnataka. Unless the party woos Northern Karnataka, it can’t realize the ambition of coming to power on its own in the days to come. Nobody knows it better than Mr. Kumaraswamy, the new Chief Minister, who appears to be political pragmatists and free from the dogmas and prejudices which were the hall marks of the attitude of his illustrious father.
There is however a fly in the ointment- namely the weak leadership in the region in both the camps. As it is both the top posts in the government, have gone to the people who do not belong to the region and not expected to inspire the confidence in the bonafides of the government. And those from the two parties, who are expected to get into the government, are definitely not people with sufficient political clout. For the JDS, the top most leader is going to be Mr. Basavaraj Horatti, MLC representing teachers constituency, who despite all his involvement in the teachers movement is yet to emerge as a politician of merit and standing. For the BJP its top most candidate who may find berth is Mr. Jagadish Shettar, the present president of the state party. The opportunities, that have come to Shettar, of being the Leader of the Opposition, then the President of the unit and now as a possible minister, have brought him personal luck but he is yet to establish himself as the leader of standing, credibility and guts. He has always proved to be an understudy of Mr. Yediyurappa. And has not been able to come out of the shadow all these days.
Ultimately, if something good has to come to region, it must from the combination of Kumaraswamy and Yediyurappa and not because of any calculated political clout and standing of the politicians from the region. Will the due have the energy and time to follow the Northern Karnataka agenda, remains as a million dollar question?
The problems and unkept promises of Northern Karnataka are in a legion. Typical of the unresolved dilemma has been dithering on the implementation of Nanjundappa Committee report on the removal of the regional imbalance. The Krishna government, which constituted the committee, chose to dither on it and hardly anything was done during the regime of Mr. Dharam Singh, barring the lip sympathy given.
There has been a concerted attempt to misrepresent the implications of the Nanjundappa Committee recommendations. What the Committee had recommended was an additional investment of Rs. 16,000 crores over a seven year period to bridge the gap in the development, not only in the Northern Karnataka region, but also in the entire backward tracks of the state. Per year it comes to an investment of Rs. 2000 crores spread over all the twentyseven districts,. For an economically buoyant state of Karnataka, it should not be a major problem to find this much of money. For want of necessary commitment, the governments of the day have not been able to implement the same.
Can the new government break the voodoo or end up like the predecessors offering excuses for not doing the things rather than take the bull by the horn.
(ends) 23:28 hrs. February 10, 2006
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