'North Karnataka left behind': Congress MLA B R Patil flags deep structural problems

Belagavi: Aland Congress MLA B R Patil on Friday highlighted the structural problems dragging down North Karnataka’s (NK) development.

Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, Patil said: “Out of two lakh students who write the SSLC exam in Kalyana Karnataka, one lakh fail. They fail because their parents are uneducated.”

“The SSLC pass percentage in Dakshina Kannada is 91.12%. It is 89.96% in Udupi. But in Kalaburagi, the pass percentage is 42.43%, which is less than half of Dakshina Kannada’s. Does this make us proud? Have we done anything about this?” he asked. 

Speaking about connectivity issues, he said: “Because of the rain, road connectivity in our region has spoiled. In many places, children have stopped going to school because of the lack of bus facilities… The government will build roads and roads will build the nation.”

For someone to come from the border region of Aurad in Bidar, they have to come through Kalaburagi, go to Ballari and then reach Bengaluru, which takes around 700–800 km, he noted.

“If there’s a direct road, we can come to Bengaluru in eight hours,” he said. 

Ministers slammed

The Aland MLA also slammed ministers for not travelling across the state. “The ministers are confined to just Bengaluru and their constituencies; this is irrespective of the governments and the parties. Are you ministers just for your constituency? Is the state, your department, not yours? Isn’t the Cabinet a joint responsibility?” he wanted to know. 

Patil sought to know how many ministers had gone to constituencies in North Karnataka like Khanapur, Aurad, Nippani, Gurmitkal and so on.

“Some ministers come to Hubballi, Belagavi and say they have come to our region. When we ask where, they say Belagavi. They don’t even know that Belagavi is 450 km away from Kalaburagi. How can there be development with such ministers?” the senior legislator lamented.

Patil also explained that places like Kalaburagi were not getting rain due to the scant 1/6th forest cover.

Seeking a campaign for afforestation, he sought a law under which lands would be confiscated if trees were not grown.