Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Friday has approved to rename Hyderabad-Karnataka region of the state as Kalyana Karnataka to do away with any remnants of colonial nomenclature or connection with the Nizams to refer to the six districts on the north eastern part of the state.
“The Hyderabad-Karnataka Regional Development Board (HKRDB) will now be renamed as Kalyana Karnataka Regional Development Board,” J.C.Madhuswamy, Karnataka’s Law & Parliamentary affairs and minor irrigation minister said after a cabinet meeting on Friday. The change in name comes after demands by legislators and others from the region to do away with the colonial-era nomenclature that associated the region with the erstwhile Nizams of Hyderabad.
The government will now initiate a process to change the name in all government records to wipe out references to the region as Hyderabad-Karnataka.
Kalaburagi member of Parliament and former union minister Mallikarjun Kharge had led efforts to get the United Progressive Alliance (UPA-II) government to amend the constitution and created Article 371 (j) that gives special status to the region that is considered one of the most backward in the country.
The HKRDB was set up on 6 November, 2013 under the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka. The board spreads over six districts-Bidar, Bellary, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Raichur and Yadgir-- and 40 assembly constituencies.
The districts were part of the Nizam’s territory and brought under Karnataka in 1956 when states in India were reorganised. The general backwardness of the regions that were brought into Karnataka including from Bombay presidency, added to the regional imbalance that remains to this day. A High Power Committee for Redressal of Regional Imbalances under Dr D.M. Nanjundappa, Former Vice Chairman of Karnataka State Planning Board was set up to assess the causes for regional imbalance in the State that submitted a report in 2002.
“The commitment should not be just change of nomenclature,” said Priyank Kharge, former minister and Congress legislator from Chittapur constituency in Kalaburagi.
He said that the region required continued commitment to overcome its problems but the chief minister B.S.Yediyurappa-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had just one minister in the cabinet from the region. He also added that there was no district incharge minister, no chairman for the board of sub-committee and only ₹5 crore has been announced for loss during floods.
According to the 2002 report, among the 114 backward taluks in the state, 59 were in the north and 55 were in the south. But more importantly, out of the 39 of the most backward taluks, 26 are in the northern parts. Out of the 31 taluks in Hyderabad-Karnataka region, 28 are backward, 21 of which are classified as most backward.
Madhuswamy said that the government is yet to take any decision on increase of grants to the region.
