The Hindu : Karnataka / Belgaum News : BJP seeks special package for Belgaum

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Sunday, Mar 06, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Belgaum

BJP seeks special package for Belgaum

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM, MARCH 5. The Belgaum district BJP has demanded a special package for the overall development of Belgaum district on the lines of the one made available for Bellary, Gulbarga and Mysore.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, the party's district unit president, Eranna Kadadi, said the Congress-Janata Dal (S) Government had formulated special packages for Gulbarga and Mysore, home districts of Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, and the Deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah.

The previous S.M. Krishna Government had evolved a special package for Bellary in response to the people electing the Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, to the Lok Sabha from there.

Though such packages for the backward districts such as Gulbarga and Bellary are welcome, it was not fair on the part of the Government to ignore the case of a border district such as Belgaum, which had remained neglected all these years. Though there was potential for industrial development besides for tourism, little was being done to exploit the resources and setting up infrastructure.

Observing that the Government was concentrating on populist programmes and ignoring production-oriented sectors such as agriculture, he sought waiver of interest component completely on all farm loans and dues in respect of electricity bills till March 31, 2005. Farmers who had paid their interest and dues should be compensated in the subsequent bills and should not be penalised for making payments.

He pointed out that though the sugar factories had benefited by the increase in the price of sugar, the managements were not prepared to share the profit with growers. The factories were paying between Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 1,050 a tonne of sugarcane whereas they could pay at least Rs. 300 more a tonne without any difficulty.

Mr. Kadadi reminded the Congress-led coalition Government its poll promise of giving Rs. 500 a month each to unemployed youths and urged it to make provision for this in the budget proposals for 2005-06.

Rally

Shashikant Nayak, who represents the Hukkeri Assembly constituency, said that a rally would be held in Hukkeri on Monday in support of the demands for waiver of interest on farm loans and power bills till March 31, 2005 and uninterrupted power supply for 12 hours to irrigation pump sets.

Meanwhile, the BJP staged a demonstration in the city condemning the dismissal of the Parrikar Government in Goa and the denial of an opportunity to the National Democratic Alliance to form the Government in Jharkhand, thought it had proved its majority.

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