Condemning Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s recent statement that Belagavi would be declared the second capital of the State, members of the Hyderabad Karnataka Kannadapara Sanghatanegala Okoota said that they would launch a week-long agitation demanding second capital status for Kalaburagi.
Okoota president Lakshman Dasti addressing presspersons here on Monday said that pro-Kannada organisations, labour unions, student unions, farmers organisations and various Dalit and minority groups would join the agitation demanding that Kalaburagi be made the second capital of the State.
He said that Kalaburagi, nearly 600 km away from Bengaluru, should be made the second capital as it would help in giving the much-needed fillip to the development of Hyderabad Karnataka region.
Mr. Dasti said that in an attempt to quell the demand for statehood for North Karnataka, Mr. Kumaraswamy has promised to grant the status to Belagavi. Representatives from Bombay Karnataka have hijacked projects to their area, neglecting the Hyderabad Karnataka region for decades, he said.
He said that Kalaburagi is an ideal location for locating the alternative capital as the high-powered committee headed by D.M. Nanjundappa, set up to study regional imbalances, had declared Kalaburagi Division as the most backward. So declaring the city as the second capital would hasten development of the backward district, he added.