Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Special package sought for backward regions

By Our Special Correspondent

GULBARGA, SEPT. 7. A seminar on "Regional Imbalances-Alternative policies to overcome the disparities'' here on Sunday demanded that the Union Government announce a special package for taking up development work in the backward regions.

Releasing the resolutions passed at the seminar, one of the organisers and the State Secretariat member of the CPI(M), Maruti Manpade, told presspersons here on Tuesday that the seminar, in which experts from various parts of the State participated, in a resolution demanded that the Union Government create a special development fund for the development of backward regions in the country as a permanent solution to the problem of disparity.

He said the seminar urged the Government to exert pressure on the Union Government to amend Article 371 of the Constitution to include Karnataka in the Schedule to provide special reservation in jobs and educational opportunities for the people of the backward areas in the State.

Mr. Manpade said another resolution was about the Government giving priority to remove these imbalances by taking up special development programmes in core sectors in the backward districts.

He said one of the major reasons for separatist forces to demand separate state comprising the backward regions in north Karnataka was the lack of development and opportunities.

Separate state

The Government should stem the rot by announcing a special package for the development of the region, he said and added that the demand for a separate state was not a solution to the problem of backwardness in the backward regions.

Mr. Manpade quoted a resolution on this as saying that the people demanding a separate state should understand the shortcomings in their stand and try to identify the real reasons for the backwardness of the region and organise a united fight to force the Government to pay the required attention to develop the area.

Referring to reports by expert committees, including the Committee for Redressal of Regional Imbalances, headed by D.M. Nanjundappa, the seminar felt that none of the reports had gone into the problems of landless agriculture labourers.

Mr. Manpade said the seminar did not agree with the suggestions made by the Nanjundappa Committee to take up disinvestment in the public sector units and privatisation of the power sector.

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