The Hindu : Karnataka News : Centre's attitude unhelpful, says Kharge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 24, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Centre's attitude unhelpful, says Kharge

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM, APRIL 23. The Home Minister, M. Mallikarjun Kharge, today took objection to the criticism of the State Government by the BJP President, M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Reacting to the charges of non-performance of the Government and neglect of north Karnataka levelled by Mr. Naidu at a press conference here today, Mr. Kharge, who was also here, said the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, and he had been urging the Centre to amend Article 371 of the Constitution to help address issues related to regional imbalances in the State as was done in the case of Vidarbha in Maharashtra and Telangana in Andhra Pradesh. They had met the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, and apprised them of the need to amend the Article. But, the Centre's attitude was unhelpful, he said.

The Centre had released only 10.55 lakh tonnes of foodgrains for drought relief works to the State while it had provided 53 lakh tonnes to Andhra Pradesh where the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was ruling.

"It seems Mr. Naidu has opened his eyes now, but I do not understand on what basis Mr. Naidu is criticising us. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka and will soon complete his six-year term, but not even once has he talked about problems such as sharing of Cauvery waters with Tamil Nadu, in Parliament."

On the charge of the Government's failure to nab Veerappan, he said Special Task Forces had been constituted by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Central forces had been posted for a year at M.M. Hills but they returned without capturing the brigand.

The State Government, however, had not only curbed his smuggling and poaching activities, but also cornered him.

On Mr. Naidu's call to the electorate to punish the "non-performing and corrupt" Congress Government in the State, Mr. Kharge wanted to know whether the Congress should be punished for serving midday meals to 53 lakh children with the objective of arresting the school dropout rate, providing houses to 8.60 lakh poor families, filling more than 17,000 of the 20,000 backlog posts, setting up 85,000 self-help groups to empower 13 lakh women or for coming up with a special package of Rs. 860 crore for farmers.

He said the State Government was giving nearly Rs. 3 as subsidy for every unit of power consumed by irrigation pumpsets. It was buying power at Rs. 3.20 a unit and distributing it at 50 paise a unit. There were 17 lakh irrigation pumpsets in the State and these farmers were getting the subsidy benefit. Should the State Government be punished for that, he asked.

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