Why statehood demand for North Karnataka won’t gather steam
There have been allegations of South Karnataka getting more funds and attention.
According to data given out by the Union government, Karnataka ranks among the top three states in many parameters, such as governance, infrastructure and investment. But this picture changes drastically when you look region-wise within the state.
Conventionally, Karnataka is divided into four regions — Mumbai Karnataka, Hyderabad Karnataka, Old Karnataka or Old Mysore region, and Karavali or Coastal Karnataka. Mumbai and Hyderabad Karnataka together can be called North Karnataka, which consists of 10 districts.
Even while the region has given the state six chief ministers, health and infrastructure development in North Karnataka has been dismal over the years. Of late, the bottled-up frustration of residents of that region has been coming out. People feel they have been treated as a stepchild and have been ignored over 70 years.
There is some truth to the allegations. With just one visit to any of the 10 districts, you can how economically backward the area is. When I went to cover Rahul Gandhi’s election tour in Koppal, just outside his guest house, there was a bunch of pigs eating litter and roaming freely. This is a common image across North Karnataka.
While South Karnataka is well irrigated, north Karnataka still largely depends on rainfall for agriculture and most land falls under dry zone. Successive governments have spoken of irrigation projects to revive agriculture, but little has been implemented on ground.
However, South Karnataka too has its share of underdeveloped areas. Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Chamarajanagar are also ignored. While there have been claims that the south gets better budgetary allocations than the north, many districts in the south are yet to have basic needs met. Drinking water continues to be a major problem in Kolar and other neighboring districts in the South.
If the South is overall doing better than the North, it is not just because of the government, but the people of the area.
But the demand for a separate state of North Karnataka is unlikely to gather much steam. People of the region know that if they break away from Karnataka, they would go backwards by 100 years. The demand of a separate state is more about politics than about people’s rights. The issue will be kept alive with an undercurrent of Lingayat (dominant in North Karnataka) and Vokkaliga (dominant in South) rivalry. Apart from Belagavi and Hubli, there is no other city or town in the 10 districts up north to compete with a Mysore or Davangere in the south.
More good than bad will come to North Karnataka if they remain a part of the state, especially after six districts were granted “special status” under Article 371-J of the Constitution in 2012.