The demand for division of Belagavi, the biggest district in the State after Bengaluru, has been raised again, with leaders from across the political spectrum speaking about it openly.
The 25-year-old demand has been raised several times in the past. However, Kannada organisations have voted it down. In 1997, when the J.H. Patel government announced formation of Chikkodi district, Kannada organisations held a month-long dharna against the move. They argued that such a move would strengthen the demand by Marathi organisations that Marathi speaking areas should be merged with Maharashtra.
This time, however, it is different as Umesh Katti, Food and Civil Supplies Minister, has spoken strongly about it. He told journalists in Hukkeri on Monday that the district should be divided to form separate Chikkodi and Bailhongal districts. “Chikkodi already has several district-level offices and Bailhongal is the sub-divisional headquarters. We need to carve out separate districts out of Belagavi. It is too big and unwieldy,’’ he said.
He said that the district with 506 gram panchayats, 14 taluks and 18 Assembly constituencies, was too big for one DC, one SP and one Zilla panchayat CEO to govern effectively. If we have three districts, then we will have nine All-India service officers instead of three, he told The Hindu. He also said that political leaders will have compact areas to supervise. Now, when the district in-charge Minister holds the Karnataka development programme review meeting, he has to keep pushing local issues to the last item on the agenda. If we have three smaller districts, there will be three Ministers who will have better control over their respective regions, he said.
On Monday, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Congress MLA, spoke of the demand for trifurcation. She demanded that Belagavi should be divided into three districts for administrative convenience. The district is too large and unwieldy for officers to govern effectively. People from Athani, Nippani and Kagwad have to travel for hours to reach the district headquarters. This needs to be divided, she said. She said Belagavi taluk should be divided too, for similar reasons.
“I have placed this demand before Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. I have told him to create a Belagavi Rural taluk, with all offices. This would benefit the people and there is no politics behind this,” she said. She said that the Congress will take up such things once it comes to power in future. It is unfair to expect people to travel long distances to get their work done, Ms. Hebbalkar said. She went to the extent of saying that if Mr. Katti were to lead a delegation to the Chief Minister on this issue, she would join it.
However, Kannada organisations are strongly opposed to the idea, saying dividing the district would create some pockets with Marathi domination.
“Such pockets would hurt the unity and integrity of Karnataka. It would also flame the separatist tendencies of organisations like Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti,’’ said Ashok Chandaragi, convenor of the action committee of Kannada associations in the district.
“Politicians of all colours have raised the demand for district division for the umpteenth time. We are not surprised. They can keep doing it, but we will oppose it, he said. We don’t want the division to happen till the Karnataka Maharashtra border dispute is settled in the Supreme Court”, he said.
