Karnataka - Gulbarga   

SEZs: Government urged not to acquire fertile land

Special Correspondent

GULBARGA: The Congress is not in favour of the acquisition of fertile land for the establishment of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Nandagudi, near Bangalore, despite the Union Government having given clearance for the project, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly N. Dharam Singh has said.

Mr. Singh told presspersons here on Saturday that the party would take up the matter with the Centre and insist that agricultural land should not be allowed to be acquired for the SEZ.

He clarified that the Congress was not opposed to SEZs as such. It was against the diversion of agricultural land for such projects.

The former Chief Minister said a delegation of legislators and Ministers from Hyderabad Karnataka would meet Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa in a couple of days. They would urge the Government to allocate funds outside the Budget for the implementation of the recommendations of the High-Power Committee for the Redressal of Regional Imbalances.

The report of the committee, which was headed by D.M. Nanjundappa, clearly stated that the funds allocated for the implementation of its recommendations should be other than the budgetary allocations.

Mr. Singh said the Congress did not want to politicise the issue and was only interested in forcing the Government to allocate separate funds to implement the committee’s recommendations.

There was no truth in the claims that the previous government headed by him had given short shrift to the committee’s recommendations.

The establishment of the Women’s University in Bijapur and the Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University in Bidar were in line with the recommendations of the committee.

Mr. Singh said the Congress supported the demand for making Gulbarga University a Central university. A Congress delegation would meet Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh shortly and request that Gulbarga University be made a Central university.

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