Bellary: The government has decided against holding a cabinet meeting in Bellary as promised during the recent by-election, but Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will hold a public contact programme, Janothsava, on September 29 in the mining town to help with its development, going by KPCC president, Dr G Parameshwar.
While energy minister, D.K. Shivakumar had promised to hold a special cabinet meeting in Bellary after the byelections to focus on its development, Mr Siddaramaiah reportedly prefers to visit it with a group of ministers to learn of the people’s problems first-hand and announce special packages for its development as a gesture of gratitude for the party’s victory.
Special packages are not new to the district, however. A Rs. 3,300-crore special package for Bellary was unveiled in 1999 by the S M Krishna government as a gesture of goodwill soon after Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, chose to retain Amethi as her constituency and gave Bellary up in the parliamentary elections that year. But today, a 500 MW thermal power plant near Kuditini is the only visible outcome of that package and people are still wondering where the rest of money released for schemes has gone .
Former district in-charge minister, Gali Janardhan Reddy, now behind bars on charges of illegal mining, too had promised to bring investment of Rs 2 lakh crore to the district from the Global Investors' Meet-2010. Although as many as six steel giants like Brahmini Steels, Arcellor Mittal and Posco signed MoUs to set up steel plants around Bellary , none of these projects have actually taken off. People are sceptical about Mr Siddaramaiah’s promises Unless he makes necessary provisions in the budget.
