Enthusiasm for new districts in Karnataka persists

The formation of the Vijayanagara district out of Ballari has renewed the hopes of several ‘aspirational districts’ including Chikkodi, Athani, Gokak, Sirsi, Pavagad and others.

The members of several district agitation committees believe that the district status would bring the administration closer, along with additional funds that could be utilised for development works. But others are sceptical, given the poor track record of the new districts which were formed after decades of struggle.

All the three committees (Vasudev Rao, Hundekar and P C Gaddigoudar) formed by the State government for the reorganisation of districts had recommended Chikkodi as a new district in 1997.

But succumbing to the pressure of a vehement protest staged by pro-Kannada organisations, the then Chief Minister J H Patel withdrew from Chikkodi the district status. These organisations argued that the disintegration of the district would increase Marathi domination.

“Ironically, we have retained our land but are losing our people as the majority of them migrate to Maharashtra for education and employment. Had we received the district status, our dependency on Maharashtra would have been far lesser,” said Chikkodi District Horata Samithi President S Y Hanji.

Samithi Secretary Tukaram Koli said that the pro-Kannada organisations which initially opposed the carving of new districts from Belagavi are not opposing it now, as they feel that Marathi dominance had come down in the district and Kannada had become more secure, unlike three decades ago. But they have now been hit by another hurdle: local politicians.

Some four to five families with political clout in the area are not raising the subject in the Assembly just to milk their private educational institutions and sugar factories, he added.

“Currently, our children have to travel to Belagavi city (around 100 km away) to get affordable higher education in government institutions. Instead, many of them prefer migrating to Kolhapur, Sangli and Miraj which are nearer,” he said, adding that this migration could have been prevented had Chikkodi witnessed industrial development.

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In addition to Belagavi, Uttara Kannada is also seeing the demand for a separate district.

The people of Sirsi have been demanding bifurcation of the district given the distance of the district headquarters Karwar.

Sirsi District Horata Samithi president Upendra Pai said for even small matters related to a court or district-level government offices, the people of an upper ghat in the district have to travel nearly 200 km, which is not viable in terms of time and money.

Even in the Tumakuru district, there has been a demand for Pavagad and Madhugiri districts. In 2019, Dr G Parameshwara of the Congress petitioned the then chief minister Yediyurappa for the creation of the Madhugiri district.

This demand was further triggered by people on social media, who claimed that forming Madhugiri district will help in marketing their agricultural produce while Pavagad could attract global investors due to the presence of its mega solar park.

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