Separate secretariat will ensure growth of Kalyana Karnataka: CM Yediyurappa

KALABURAGI: Chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Tuesday said his government would soon establish a separate secretariat to oversee the development of Kalyana Karnataka, less than a fortnight after the government announced the new name of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region.
He promised to make adequate allocations for development of the region — comprising Ballari, Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur and Koppal districts in north Karnataka — by increasing special grants to Kalyana Karnataka Regional Development Board (formerly HKRDB) and filling vacancies in departments.
“I know that a mere change of name would not do much for the development of the region. I will establish a separate secretariat to focus on development of the region,” Yediyurappa he told reporters here before taking part at the Kalyana Karnataka Utsava organised at Nutan Vidyalaya here to mark the renaming of the region. “We are facing a fund crunch this year as the state was hit by floods, [so] I will increase the budgetary allocations to HKRDB in the next budget.”
The region was part of the princely state of Hyderabad in British India.
The chief minister said only one MLA from the region had been made a minister so far but promised to induct more MLAs in the next cabinet expansion.
To improve educational standards and stimulate interest in science in the Kalyana Karnataka region, Yediyurappa launched six “mobile space vans” which will operate in all six districts, near schools in villages, so students could make use of them. The space vans have been developed to cover the primary and high school syllabi through the ‘Nodi Tili’ concept.
The CM also handed over six taxicabs for tourism to beneficiaries in Kalaburagi.
No winter session in Belagavi
The winter session of the Karnataka legislature will be held in Bengaluru and not in Belagavi, as is the practice, as most parts of the district have been ravaged by floods, Yediyurappa said in Bengaluru before departing for Kalaburagi.
He said the Belagavi deputy commissioner and the district administration had informed him that they were not in a position to hold the session there this year as efforts are still underway to rehabilitate people hit by the floods in the district. Belagavi was among the worst hit of the 22 Karnataka districts affected by the floods of last month.
The government is expected to present a supplementary budget during the session.
Belagavi has hosted the legislature session once a year since 2006, when the JD(S)- BJP coalition government headed by Kumaraswamy held the first winter session in north Karnataka.
Construction of Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, modelled on the Vidhana Soudha, started a year later to reflect that Belagavi was an integral part of Karnataka. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in October 2012.