Important to hold session at Belagavi

the association has claimed that a large number of government officers and media persons travelling to Belagavi would increase the threat of Covid

The recent demand of the Karnataka State Secretariat Employees’ Association to cancel the 10-day legislature session scheduled to be held at Suvarna Soudha, Belagavi, from December 13 is without merit. Amidst fears of the Omicron variant, the association has claimed that a large number of government officers and media persons travelling to Belagavi would increase the threat of infection. However, Covid only seems to be a ruse not to get out of their comfort zone in Bengaluru. If Covid indeed is a threat, then the government has taken the right decision to hold the session at Suvarna Soudha, and not in Bengaluru, which emerged as the epicentre of the virus during both the first and second waves. The government has done well to reject the demand and hold fast to its plans to conduct the session in Belagavi with adequate precautions, and it is hoped that it will not change its mind.

Also Read | Belagavi legislature session is very much on, says CM Bommai

Suvarna Soudha was built at a cost of over Rs 400 crore to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Karnataka’s formation and also to reiterate the state’s control over Belagavi, given its longstanding border dispute with neighbouring Maharashtra, which has also staked claimed to the city. Administratively, Soudha was to serve as a gateway to the government to the economically backward districts of the northern parts of the state, now renamed Kalyana Karnataka. In reality, however, the building has turned out to be a white elephant as virtually no government activity takes place here, with even the legislature session not being held here for three years now. Thus, the very purpose of bringing governance closer to the region’s people, who now have to travel to faraway Bengaluru to get their work done, has been defeated. The situation has reached such a pass that the government is now considering renting out the auditorium and the meeting halls for private conferences to raise funds for the building’s upkeep.

The government should keep up its promise of shifting the head offices of some departments to Belagavi so that the people of the region can get their issues resolved locally. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai should set an example by operating from Suvarna Soudha for at least a few months in a year. Only then will other ministers and bureaucrats follow suit. Unless a concerted effort is made to decentralise administration, Suvarna Soudha will remain a useless showpiece. Holding the annual winter session there is thus important.

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