Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Gulbarga getting a raw deal?

GULBARGA: Gulbarga district which returned five MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been represented in the Cabinet by one MLA.

Four-time MLA Revu Naik Belamgi, representing Gulbarga Rural constituency, has been made Minister for Animal Husbandry. Mr. Belamgi’s portfolio is considered to be a minor one.

Even in the appointment of the district in-charge Minister Gulbarga has been given a raw deal by the Government. First-time Minister Lakshman S. Savadi from Belgaum, who holds Cooperation portfolio, has been given the charge.

Gulbarga had enjoyed a place of pride not only in the appointment of MLAs from district as Ministers and distribution of portfolios, but also in the appointment of officials to the post of Deputy Commissioner and other top posts.Six Ministers in the S.M. Krishna Cabinet belonged to the district. Ministers from Gulbarga were given prime portfolios in the successive governments also.

However, the BJP Government has changed this order.For the first time in the last 12 years, the Government has posted a Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) promotee as the Deputy Commissioner of Gulbarga. K.S. Satyamurthy, Chief Executive Officer of Bangalore Rural Zilla Panchayat, has been given the charge.

The last KAS officer to hold the post of Deputy Commissioner of Gulbarga was C. Krishnappa. He held the post for one year from 1995-96 before he was shifted on the eve of the 1996 general elections. Incidentally, the Chief Executive Officer of the Gulbarga Zilla Panchayat is an IAS officer.The BJP Government has divested the post of Regional Commissioner from senior IAS officer Gangaram Baderia and posted K.S. Prabhakara, Commissioner for Mines and Geological Resources, in his place. Mr. Prabhakara is also a KAS promotee and not a direct IAS cadre official.

How far these two important posting will have a bearing on the administration of the backward district is to be seen.

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