Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Feb 23, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Feb 23, 2002 |
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Government
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States Logistics - Railways Kannadigas plan noisy protest to vent their ire on rail woes Our Bureau
MANGALORE, Feb. 22 IN an attempt to cure what is being perceived as the Centre's `deafness' to the `genuine aspirations' of the people of Karnataka, thousands of Kannadigas are to get together to beat drums on Saturday. This drum-beating exercise, it is hoped, will be loud enough to reach the ears of the powers that be. The Kannada Chaluvali leader, Mr Vatal Nagaraj, will be in the forefront of the ceremony and, this time round, the issue is for the `step-motherly' treatment being meted out to the State in the earlier Railway Budgets. And with this year's Railway Budget due to be presented on Monday, it is also hoped that the sound waves from these drums would travel all the way to Delhi. Reeling out figures to substantiate his point that Karnataka had been getting a meagre share of the resources needed to implement new projects and complete the ongoing work, Mr Nagaraj said the Centre should bring out a white paper outlining the comparative allocations made to all the States. He also warned of a State-wide agitation if this year's Railway Budget showed the same `miserliness' towards Karnataka which, he claims, was being neglected due to the lackadaisical attitude of its elected representatives. Also, regarding the state of the over two-crore Kannadigas living in over 10,000 villages in `border areas', he said a commission should be set up on a permanent basis to look into their problems and interests and a sum of Rs 500 crore should be set aside in the State Budget every year to redress the `developmental imbalances' plaguing villages and towns lining the Karnataka border. The skewed economic development of these areas had left the Kannadigas in a no-man's land where to be a Kannadiga becomes a sign of backwardness.
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