Though Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Sunday said the state would not ask the Centre to withdraw the Bill for amendment to Article 371 for the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, it came only after he registered the government’s opposition to the Bill in its present form.
In an interview with Express, Shettar said he wanted some changes in the Bill. But even if the Centre did not accept the state’s suggestions, the BJP would support the Bill during voting, he said.
However, in a letter addressed to Venkaiah Naidu, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, on November 9, Shettar had said the Centre had neither consulted the state nor sought its opinion before tabling the Bill, proposing to insert Article 371(J) to confer special status to the H-K region in the Rajya Sabha. “The state was not aware of the contents of the proposed Article 371(J) before it was presented to the RS by the Centre,” Shettar had said in his letter.
He had further said both the Houses of the Karnataka Legislature had unanimously passed a resolution seeking regional reservation in technical education and employment as provided under Article 371(D) for Andhra Pradesh (Telangana).
The CM had said the state was not in favour of creation of development boards on the Maharashtra (Vidarbha) model under Article 371(2).
The government felt that the special developmental plan as envisaged by the High-Power Committee on Regional Imbalance, headed by Dr D M Nanjundapa, was more suited to the state than establishment of regional development boards on the Vidarbha model, he had said.