'Development work held up in State due to Centre's apathy'

Taking a dig at the UPA-led Central government, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said that the Centre never extended support to the development projects in the State.

He was speaking at the Vijaya Sankalpa convention at the Acharya Agriculture Grounds in Gauribidanur on Thursday.

He said though State government was willing to give all the support and assistance, the Centre never came forward and assisted Karnataka. “As a result many development projects are in cold storage,” he added.

“The State, apart from the railway projects, has extended full co-operation to other projects. However, the Central government is disinterested,” he added.

The MPs and Union  Minister from Kolar and Chikkaballapur constituencies, K H Muniyappa and Veerappa Moily, respectively, have given requisitions for sanctioning of land and grants for various projects. However, after a while there is no communication from them,” he added.

“Karnataka probably is the only state in the country which in principle has agreed to give free land and also share 50 per cent of cost not only for railway projects but also for other development works. However, the Centre remains elusive, stalling all the works,” he added.

On Chikkaballapur district, he said that the government had made sincere effort to develop the drought-prone district. He said, seeing the water crisis in the region, the government had given green signal for Yettinahole project.

The previous governments had only promised to implement the irrigation project. But for the BJP government it is the top priority, he added.

Though the district doesn’t have BJP MLAs for MPs, the government has given impetus to development work in the region.

One party at State, Centre

“In the comings days, there will be a single party both at the Centre and State. Narendra Modi will be the prime minister while Jagadish Shettar will be the State’s chief minister once again. The development projects will be efficiently implemented then,” said party State president Pralhad Joshi.

Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka, District incharge Minister A Narayanaswamy, MP P C Mohan, MLCs Y A Narayanaswamy, Shivayogiswamy, Zilla Panchayat president C R Narasimhamurthy and others were present on the occasion.

Earlier, Shettar, Joshi, Ashoka and others came in an open van for procession. The procession, which was preceded by the procession of various cultural troupes, passed through the main roads of the town before converging at the Grounds.

Hundreds of participants took part in the convention, which was delayed by two hours. Women participants outnumbered men at the convention. Tight police security was provided at the venue to avoid any untoward incident.