Former Minister and Congress MLA Basavaraj Rayareddy on Monday accused the coalition government of discriminating against the north Karnataka region in the allocation of funds for development works.
Participating in the discussion on demand for grants, Mr Rayareddy alleged that the present government had shown brazen favouritism towards the Old Mysore region in the allocation of funds.
He said even though the state highways-Bijapur to Chitradurga and Bellary to Hubli- were very important, the present government had not shown interest to convert them into four lane highways. But it had already initiated steps to convert Hassan-Bangalore-Mangalore, Kolar-Mulbagal and Mysore -Bangalore state highways into four lane highways.
Of the Rs 165 crore released for maintenance of roads during 2006-07 under 12th Finance, Rs 101 crore was released for south zone covering the Old Mysore area and the north zone encompassing the entire north Karnataka was released only Rs 64 crore.
Similarly during 2007-08 of the Rs 45 crore released, the south zone was sanctioned Rs 42.26 crore and the north zone only Rs 2.34 crore.
Revanna opposes
There was a strong opposition from PWD and Power Minister H D Revanna to the allegation that while the north Karnataka region was neglected, the Hassan district was given undue prominence. “Let the member also spell out the allocation made to the Old Mysore region during the five year rule of Congress regime”, he demanded..
Referring to the B scheme of Bachawat Award, which is now before a Commission, Mr Rayareddy wanted to know what master plan the government had prepared to utilise the water.
On the power situation, Mr Rayareddy said that the shortage, which was now around 1900 MW, would shoot up to 5000 MW in next five years.
The demand for coal which was 25,000 metric tonnes per day now, would rise to 40,000 metric tonnes per day in a few years when both units of Bellary Thermal Power Station and also the eighth unit of Raichur Thermal Power Station start generating power. “
As coal based generation is causing lot of pollution, I appeal to the government to switch over to gas-based generation”, he stated.
Stating that there was a scope for generating about 800 MW of hydro-electricity from the Cauvery river, Mr Rayareddy appealed to the state government to initiate dialogues with the Tamil Nadu government on harnessing the cheap energy.