I give regular updates to Modi: Vala

Governor Vajubhai Vala on Thursday said he was giving timely updates and reports of the State and its developments to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Speaking to the media at the sidelines of the launch of e-books (DVD) on ‘History and Culture of Indian People’ in English and ‘Bharatiya Janateya Itihaasa Mattu Samskruti’ in Kannada organised by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Vala said: “During the recent meeting with Modi in Bangalore, we have not discussed anything in particular. But I keep giving regular updates to him about the State. If the State wants anything in particular, they can tell me and I will tell Modi about this.”

Regarding the flood-hit north Karnataka districts and the proposal to divide the State and make nine districts of north Karnataka as a separate state, he said: “It is up to the finance minister to allocate funds dedicated only for flood management, annually. I too was the finance minister and have done this before. Ideally the State government should allocate 20 per cent and the central government allocates 75 per cent funds for flood management and this should not be used elsewhere. And if the State needs more funds, it should contact the centre directly and release of funds depends upon the relationship between the two. The Governor is nowhere involved in it. Also whether the State should be one or two, it is for the State and the centre to decide. No proposal has come to me and I do not know anything about it, either.”

Book released

Eleven volumes of the English book and 25 volumes of the Kannada book were released. The English volumes have been compiled by 100 historians under the leadership of Dr R C Majumdar. It is a total of 9,881 pages. The lucid and authentic volumes have been produced over a period of 32 years of Dr KM Munshi, founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

The Kannada volumes have been prepared by 60 historians under the leadership of Dr A V Narasimha Murthy, professor of History and Archaeology, University of Mysore. The team worked for eight years and prepared the volume of 13,691 pages which also has 441 illustrations, 126 line drawings and 17 maps.