Northern Karnataka let down again

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.
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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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