TIME TO REJOICE: A file picture of members of the Lambani community celebrating the announcement of setting up of Banjara Development Corporation.

BANGALORE: The 40 lakh people of the Lambani community, known as Banjaras, in the State are in an upbeat mood with Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa conceding their decade-old demand for establishing a Banjara Development Corporation with an initial allocation of Rs. 10 crore.

Sources in the Secretariat told The Hindu here that the Government Order for establishing the corporation would be issued shortly. It had been decided to appoint a non-official, preferably an elected representative of the Banjara Community, as the first chairman of the corporation and a senior official of the Government as the executive head.

Credit should go to Minister for Animal Husbandry Revu Naik and the Congress general secretary and MLC Prakash Rathod on apprising Deputy Chief Minister on the need to establish the Banjara Development Corporation.

With the Government refraining from announcing it in the budget presented to the Legislative Assembly on March 16, the Lambani community leaders called on Deputy Chief Minister and requested him to include their proposal while he gave his reply to the budget.

Much beyond their expectations, Mr. Yediyurappa has provided Rs. 3 crore for the construction of a "Banjara Bhavan" in Bangalore (the Government has given a big site in the Miller Tank bed adjacent to the Ambedkar Bhavan) and Rs. 1 crore for upgrading the guru (Seva Bhaya) peeta of the Lambanis at Suryagondana Koppa in Shimoga district.

Mr. Prakash Rathod said apart from promoting the art, culture and handicrafts produced by the lambanis, the Banjara Development Corporation should provide basic training to lambani women engaged in the manufacture of a variety of artefacts and garments. Because of poor marketing facilities, most of the lambani garment produce and handicrafts were purchased by middlemen in the export business, who netted a big profit abroad. Lambani garments produced in Karnataka were popular in several European countries. He said apart from converting the nearly 1,500 lambani hamlets into revenue villages and providing better educational facilities for the lambani children, the Government should take steps to prevent atrocities being perpetrated against lambani women by the upper caste people. Most of the lambani people were engaged in menial jobs, particularly in the construction sector. With education would come better employment opportunities and this would prevent the lambanis from migrating to new areas. As such, the lambanis who have their roots in Rajasthan were nomads and have settled in all parts of the country.

In Karnataka, the lambanis were a group in the Scheduled caste list although in some other States they had been listed under Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes. The first elected representative of the community to be elevated as a minister in Karnataka was the late K.T. Rathod (1977), who was later appointed Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president. The others to be appointed ministers in successive governments were K. Shivamurthy, H.D. Lamani, B.T. Lalitha Naik, M. Shankar Naik, Babu Rao Chavan and Revu Naik.

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