Don't get trapped by supporting statehood for North Karnataka: Raghavendra Kushtagi
KALABURAGI: While asserting that north Karnataka has been discriminated against by successive governments in the state leading to its backwardness, state working president of Jana Sangrama Parishat Raghvendra Kushtagi, however, stated that carving out a new state is a solution for all the problems confronting the region. Mr Kushtagi cautioned leaders as well as people of Hyderabad Karnataka not to fall into the trap by blindly accepting the demand for a separate state.
“For us, leaders of Mumbai Karnataka are as dangerous as those from the Old Mysore region. While underscoring the need for setting right regional imbalance, the leaders of Mumbai-Karnataka hijacked all projects to their area and never cared for the development of HK region, which is more backward than their area. Whether it was a new railway zone, Suvarna Vikasa Soudha, Technical University, Law University, Mahila University, Indian Institute of Technology or high court bench, they took all of them to their region in the garb of setting right the regional imbalance and gave no importance whatsoever to the HK region.
This is because the leaders of Mumbai Karnataka region are narrow minded and never looked beyond their own area. So we have to be cautious when the demand for NK is raised. Because if we do that whatever reservation benefits that we have got in the wake of conferring the special status under Article 371(J) will be lost. Therefore, I oppose the call for a separate NK state at this juncture,” Mr Kushtagi declared.
He questioned the rationale behind the support extended by former Ballari MP B. Sriramulu to the demand for a separate state. “What benefit did the people of Jharkhand and Uttarakhand derive after these states were carved out with only the BJP benefitting by securing power in these states. The same would be the fate of NK state, if it is formed,” Mr Kushtagi asserted. The honorary President of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha Chamarasa Patil felt the continuous neglect of the NK region by successive governments has fuelled the demand for separate NK state. “Whether it was allocation of funds, execution of irrigation projects, setting up of educational institutions and also industries...the NK region has been looked down upon,” he said.
