BENGALURU: A day after he slammed the media for stoking the row over separate statehood for north Karnataka, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy succeeded on Tuesday, in convincing agitators seeking a division of the state to call off the shutdown on August 2 by announcing a slew of conciliatory moves, including shifting a part of the government machinery to the northern districts.
Even as he shifted the blame from the media to leaders of BJP, he made an emotional appeal to leaders of 'Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti', who called for the bandh on Thursday: “Consider me as one among you (people of north Karnataka). Some people want to create a rift between us by indulging in false propaganda. I have plans and programmes to earn your love and affection. I don't want to talk about who did what in the past. What I know is that now I have got the opportunity and will take complete responsibility for developing north Karnataka, whether it is with industries, irrigation or infrastructure."
Reminding the leaders that he was the one who had taken the initiative to build Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi during his previous tenure as Chief Minister (2006-2007), Mr Kumaraswamy said in addition to overall development of the region, part of the administrative machinery would be shifted to the border city.
