CHITRADURGA: Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Tuesday said the Union Government had rejected Karnataka’s recommendation to include the Kadugolla community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list, based on an ethnographic study report. He said the rejection was a setback to the development of around 2.5 lakh members of the community living across Karnataka.
Addressing a press conference at the Vokkaliga community hall in Nanjayyanakottige in Hiriyur town on Tuesday, Shivakumar said the Kadugolla community, which has a population of around 60,000 in Hiriyur taluk alone, remained educationally, politically and economically backward.Shivakumar said leaders of the Opposition in Karnataka had also assured the government that they would try to persuade the Centre to accept the recommendation. However, the Centre’s decision had been contrary to expectations, and the Opposition leaders had failed to take the issue seriously, he claimed.
The CM said his government would reconsider the issue at the next Cabinet meeting and exert fresh pressure on the Centre to ensure social, educational and political justice for the community. “The government is committed to ensuring justice to the Kadugolla community,” he said.
Shivakumar also said development projects worth around Rs 2,500 crore, including irrigation works, had been launched in the region on Tuesday. The projects would be completed soon, he added. The government had entrusted officials with the responsibility of identifying and distributing around five lakh residential sites to poor and homeless people across the state, he said.
