Creation of new taluks opens Pandora's box

The Karnataka State Taluk Reorganisation Committee which is looking into the demands for creation of new taluks will have a tough job on hand. The committee headed by former principal secretary M B Prakash is faced with the demand for creation of 136 new taluks in the state in addition to the existing 176 taluks. The committee comprising Chiranjeevi Singh and H K Shivanand as members is looking into the pros and cons of these demands before submitting a final report to the government.

The biggest challenge before the committee is to chalk out its own criteria for the creation of new taluks as the government has not fixed any criteria for the same. The committee has the onus of considering the demands on rational basis and ensure justice to the genuine long-pending demands. In Belgaum division alone there is demand for 57 new taluks of which ten are in Belgaum district. Belgaum division comprises of Belgaum, Dharwad, Haveri, Gadag, Bagalkot and Bijapur districts.

There is demand for creation of nine new taluks each in Bijapur and Haveri, five in Gadag, two in Dharwad, seven in Bagalkot and six in Uttara Kannada district.

The committee is understood to have proposed creation of only five taluks in Belgaum district - Kagwad from Athani taluk, Nippani from Chikkodi,Mudalagi from Gokak, Yaragatti from Ramdurg and Kittur from Khanapur taluk. The committee is considering various aspects such as economic, trade-links, communication, geographical, historical, cultural and political before submitting its recommendations to the government.

The committee is likely to submit its report by the end of May. M B Prakash along with two other members recently visited Belgaum and held a divisional level meeting with the officials concerned.