Bellary: Keeping his promise to the people of Bellary in the run-up to the recent by-election, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday announced a Rs 850 crore special package for the development of the district. Emerging from a review meeting of various departments with nine ministers of his cabinet, Mr Siddaramaiah told reporters he had approved the action plans submitted by the concerned ministeries and a time-frame had been fixed for the execution of the package.
With this announcement the Congress party seems to be clearly saying thank you to Bellary for electing its candidate, N Y Hanumanthappa in the by-election by a margin of 33,000 votes in the constituency considered for long a stronghold of BJP MP, B Sreeramulu.
Under the packge Rs 204 crore will be given to the social welfare department to construct nine student hostels and residential schools, implement schemes under Ganga Kalyana Yojane and provide loans to scheduled caste and backward castes. Another Rs 247 crore will be given for building houses for 12,399 homeless people in Bellary rural, Rs 37 crore for building toilets in Bellary rural and Rs 39 crore for constructing toilets in Bellary urban.
Other components include Rs 50 crore for drinking water in rural areas, Rs 10 crore for electricity supply and connection in rural areas, Rs 12.75 crore for building a four-lane road in Bellary city, Rs 13 crore for minorities welfare schemes and Rs 1 crore for the endowments department.
But it is being received with scepticism as a previous Rs 3,300-crore special package for the development of Bellary announced by the S.M. Krishna government as a token of gratitude to the people for electing Congress president Sonia Gandhi to the Lok Sabha elections in 1999, has made little difference to the development of the district. Except for a 500 MW Bellary Thermal Power Station, most other projects announced have either failed to take off or remain incomplete.
