Date:02/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/02/stories/2007060203340400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Give Gulbarga its due share'

Staff Reporter

B.R. Patil

BANGALORE: The suspended Janata Dal (Secular) MLA B.R. Patil has urged Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy to allocate the promised development grants for the Gulbarga region purely on the basis of the cumulative deprivation index (CDI) as recommended by the D.M. Nanjundappa committee.

Mr. Patil, who represents Aland constituency in Gulbarga district, told presspersons here on Thursday that the bureaucracy was not fully aware of the complexity of the problems in the Gulbarga region. Officials wanted to allocate funds in percentages of 20, 30 and 50 to the backward, more backward and most backward taluks respectively.

Of the 39 most backward taluks identified by the Nanjundappa committee, 21 were in the Gulbarga region. Of the Rs. 125 crore development fund earmarked, the Gulbarga region would be eligible to get Rs. 50 crore if the CDI method was used for calculation. The region would, however, get only Rs. 41. 47 crore if the percentage method was adopted, he said.

He said he had written a letter to the Chief Minister explaining the issue. Besides, a report on the subject had already been submitted to the Government.

The report was compiled by two academics, B. Sheshadri and T.R. Shesahdri, Mr. Patil said.