Laxmi Hebbalkar pushes for division of Belagavi district

Emphasising that the division of the geographically and demographically big Belagavi district was essential to facilitate development, Minister for Women and Child Development Laxmi Hebbalkar has said that a memorandum would be submitted to the Chief Minister and Revenue Minister after Dasara.

Speaking to presspersons in Belagavi on Saturday, said that she would discuss the issue of division of Belagavi district with the district-in-charge Minister and MLAs before submitting the memorandum. “We will suggest which taluk should be carved out as new district. But Belagavi could be divided into two or three districts,” she said.

On the statement of Panchamasali seer Basava Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swami that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was not giving time to discuss the reservation issue and legislators of the community too were not raising the issue, the Minister said that she was not aware of the context in which the seer had made the statement. “Previously, we have arranged for meeting of the seer with the CM. Another appointment with the CM was given at Suvarna Vidhana Soudha. I don’t know why the seer said that. I will speak to him,” she said.

On former Minister Murugesh Nirani’s comment against her on reservation issue, Ms. Hebbalkar asked what Mr. Nirani had done for the Panchamasali community. “When in power, he (Nirani) did not help the community. But I have always been in favour of the Panchamasali reservation,“ she said.

To a query, she said that the party would give a response to the FIR against the CM through the legal route. Across the country, attempts were being made to topple non-BJP governments through the Raj Bhavans, she alleged.

“First Union Finance Minister Niramala Sitaraman who is caught in the ₹6,000 crore Electoral Bond scam and Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy who is caught in the denotification scam should resign and then BJP leaders may speak about the CM’s resignation,” she said.

The Minister said that BJP leaders who criticised the guarantee schemes of Karnataka, were actually following the Karnataka model by copying the guarantee schemes and mentioning them in their election manifestos for Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Maharashtra.

Published - September 28, 2024 09:23 pm IST