Date:08/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/08/stories/2006100802670300.htm

Karnataka - Gulbarga

Samiti to boycott Rajyotsava Day celebrations

Special Correspondent

It threatens to revive demand for statehood for Hyderabad-Karnataka region

GULBARGA: The Hyderabad Karnataka Horata Samiti on Saturday said it will boycott the Rajyotsava Day celebrations on November 1 and observe it as Black Day in protest against what it termed the continued neglect of backward regions.

Samiti president and former Minister Vaijnath Patil, MLA, told The Hindu that the samiti would hold protests on November 1 in all the district and taluk headquarters of the four districts of Hyderabad-Karnataka region, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar and Koppal, by unfurling the flag of Hyderabad-Karnataka. He warned that if the Government continued to be indifferent towards its demands for redressal of regional imbalances, the samiti would be forced to revive its demand for statehood for the region.

Mr. Patil said that in all the four districts, the district in-charge Ministers who come to participate in the Rajyotsava Day celebrations would be gheraoed as a mark of protest.