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He offers to lead a delegation of elected representatives of North Karnataka to PM to seek clearances for pending projects
Stating that the government was committed to removing regional imbalances through development, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday declared that it would implement the report of M. Govinda Rao High Power Committee for Reddressal of Regional Imbalances which is expected to be submitted in January, 2026.
“Whatever may be the requirement of funds, we will implement the committee’s recommendations fully,” the Chief Minister told the Legislative Assembly while replying to a debate on issues related to development of North Karnataka.
Again accusing the Centre of coming in the way of development of North Karnataka by not giving clearances to prominent projects of the region, the Chief Minister also offered to lead a delegation of elected representatives from North Karnataka to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek justice in this regard.
The government would take measures to focus on taluks that would be identified by the Govinda Rao committee as backward, the Chief Minister said.
Backward taluks
He pointed out that earlier measures had been taken to provide funds to the tune of ₹31,000 crore over the period of eight years to 114 taluks that had been identified as most backward, more backward and backward taluks in the State.
However, the Goinda Rao committee had been formed later to know if regional imbalances still prevailed and the measures to be taken to tackle them, he noted.
The disparities in terms of development were clearly visible with about 10 districts of the total 31 in Karnataka, particularly those from the northern region, having a per capita income of less than ₹2 lakh as against the State’s average per capita income of ₹3,39,813, he noted.
He termed the guarantee schemes too as tools for removing regional imbalances. As much as 43.63% per cent of the funds meant for guarantee schemes had been spent in North Karnataka region, he pointed out.
Of the total population of 6.95 crore in the State, North Karnataka accounted for 2.96 crore (42%). Geographically, the northern region accounted for 14 districts of the total 31 districts in the State and 97 Assembly constituencies of the total 224 in the State, he explained.
Citing lack of dairy development in North Karnataka as one of the reasons for its backwardness, particularly in rural areas, he pointed out that as against the State’s milk production of over one crore litres a day, the northern milk unions accounted for just 10 lakh litres a day.
Centre’s stumbling block
Accusing the Centre of indulging in non-cooperation with the State, he alleged that the Centre had failed to keep its promise of providing assistance of ₹5,300 crore to Upper Bhadra Project as listed in its Budget a few years ago.
Similarly, it had put a stumbling block in the path of development of North Karnataka by not notifying the award of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-2 and by not providing clearances to the Mahadayi drinking water project, he alleged.
The Centre was yet to provide the State’s share of ₹13,000 crore towards Jal Jeevan Mission and ₹3,000 crore towards peripheral ring road in Bengaluru, he said, and reiterated that Karnataka had suffered a loss of ₹ 1.5 lakh crore in the last five years in terms of devolution of funds, grants and its share of Central taxes though it contributed a tax amount of ₹4.5 lakh crore a year.
He agreed to bring out a White Paper on the status of promises made for the development of North Karnataka.
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