Basava Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swami, head of Lingayat Panchamasali Peetha, Kudalasangama, has said that despite tall claims north Karnataka still remains backward and the State government should announce a special economic package for the development of Kalyana and Kittur Karnataka.
Responding to a query on the demand for a separate State by BJP leader Umesh Katti in Haveri on Saturday, the seer said that just because people of the region had remained silent, efforts should not be made to suppress them. “The wall of patience of could break any time”, he said.
The seer said that Mr. Katti had been raising the demand for a separate State for almost a decade. Whenever stepmotherly treatment was accorded to north Karnataka, voices for a separate State resurfaced. If Karnataka has to remain undivided, then the government should take steps for development of north Karnataka. Government departments should be shifted to the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi and the recommendations of the Dr. Nanjundappa Committee on Regional Imbalance should be implemented in toto, he said.
