Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Border area authority yet to utilise Rs. 10 crore allocated to it

Taking stock: Chairman of the Karnataka Border Area Development Authority Chandrakant Bellad conducting a review meeting in Gulbarga on Thursday.

GULBARGA: The Karnataka Border Area Development Authority is yet to utilise the Rs. 10 crore earmarked by the State Government for providing basic infrastructure in the border villages of 52 taluks in 17 districts of the State.

Chairman of the authority Chandrakant Bellad, MLA, who conducted a review meeting on the status of villages bordering Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in Gulbarga district, told presspersons here on Thursday that the authority could not spend the allocated funds mainly because of a delay in getting the details from the districts, such as status of schools and communication facilities.

“So far only eight of the 17 districts have submitted full details about the status of the border villages in the format sought by the authority. In Gulbarga district, there are border villages in five taluks but only Shahpur has provided the details sought by the authority,” Mr. Bellad said.

He said the regional commissioners had been asked to direct tahsildars of the remaining border area taluks to submit the details at the earliest in order to formulate an action plan for taking up development activities.

Mr. Bellad said, “I, along with the other members of the authority, will tour all the villages in the border areas after getting reports from tahsildars. We will then take up remedial measures.”

Mr. Bellad said that of the total of 52 border taluks, 40 had been identified as most backward, more backward and backward by the Nanjundappa Committee. The funds earmarked under the Special Development Plan (SDP) for development of these 40 taluks would be clubbed with the funds available under the authority. It would be utilised for taking up development works.

To a question, Mr. Bellad said that the authority had sought details on the status of schools in the border areas, the student strength , teacher vacancies, availability of playground for children, basic infrastructure in school, including drinking water, toilet and library facilities. The authority had also asked the officials in these taluks to provide details on whether there were any vocational institutions, including ITIs and polytechnics.

He said that the thrust of the authority in the action plan for development of border areas would be to protect Kannada language and culture of the State in the border areas. The authority would take up construction of cultural auditoriums in the border areas, and another area of priority would be to improve the communication facilities, he added.

Afzalpur MLA Malikayya Guttedar said that the allocation to the authority should be increased.

Aland MLA Subhash Guttedar and HKDB chairman Amarnath Patil spoke. Deputy Commissioner R. Vishal was present.

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