The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Centre not discriminating against State: Acharya

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Thursday, Jan 01, 2009
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Centre not discriminating against State: Acharya

Special Correspondent

V.S. Acharya

Bangalore: In a rare gesture of appreciation of the Union Government’s balanced view in sanctioning central development projects to the State, Home Minister V.S. Acharya on Wednesday said that the Centre had not discriminated against Karnataka.

He was speaking to presspersons, who met him in his chamber in Vidhana Soudha. Contrary to the perception, the Minister said that the Centre had favoured the State by giving one of the nanotechnology centres.

He said that the centre had sanctioned Rs.100 crore to the Mysore University and Rs.120 crore (Rs.20 crore to be spent by the State Government) to the Bowring and Victoria Hospitals and special grants to the Indian Institute of Science.

He said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had echoed the aspirations of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa during his recent visit to the city on locating one of the units of the National Security Guards in Bangalore. Dr. Acharya said Mr. Yeddyurappa was taking up the issue with the Centre at a meeting convened on January 6 and 7 in New Delhi.

Disagreeing with the suggestion that the Centre was discriminating against Karnataka in sanctioning projects, the Minister said that the Army`s Southern Command was equipped with striking force and other units akin to that of the NSG commandos, whose services could be utilised by the State Government when warranted.

He said that the National Thermal Power Corporation had come forward to set up a 2,000 MW plant in the State. After, Kaiga Nuclear Power Plant in the Seventh Plan, this was the first power project, the State was getting, he added.

The Minister said that the two persons, who were arrested by the Pune police, had their origins in Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada district. He did not go in to details. He said that the government had approved the K. Jagannatha Shetty Commission of Inquiry which probed into the Bhatkal incidents said that steps had been taken to prevent recurrence of such incidents.

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