Date:08/04/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/04/08/stories/2007040807600400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Ex-Minister for creation of Yadgir district

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: Congress leader and former Minister A.B. Maalakaraddi has urged the Government to carve out Yadgir district from the present Gulbarga district, for better governance.

In a memorandum to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Revenue Minister Jagadish Shettar, Dr. Maalakaraddi urged the Government to divide the Gulbarga district into two for better administration.

The Government recently constituted a District Reorganisation Committee headed by the retired IAS officer V. Balasubramanian to oversee the bifurcation of four districts — Belgaum, Bangalore Rural, Kolar and Gulbarga. Members of the committee are former Additional Chief Secretary Chiranjiv Singh and the former Union Secretary K.V. Irniraya. The Regional Commissioner is the member-secretary of the committee.

The Hundekar Committee and the Gaddigoudar Committee set up by the previous governments for the reorganisation of the districts and taluks concerned recommended creation of a new district with Yadgir as the district headquarters, Dr. Maalakaraddi said.

The J.H. Patel Government had also sought to carve out Yadgir as a district, but kept the exercise in abeyance. KPCC president M. Mallikarjun Kharge has been opposing the bifurcation of Gulbarga district.