State delegation to meet PM

Karnataka government today said an all party delegation would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram to press for amendment to Article 371 of the Constitution to provide a special status for the backward Hyderabad-Karnataka region of the state.

CM B S Yeddyurappa said he would consult opposition leaders on the issue in a couple of days and an all-party delegation, accompanied by Central ministers from the state, would be taken to Delhi before the end of the current session of Parliament. “It’s a long-pending demand. There is no difference of opinion between the ruling and opposition parties on the issue,” he said, adding, the aim of the delegation is to take the matter to its “finality”. Yeddyurappa, responding to the issue raised by Nadagouda Venkatarao (JD-S) during Zero Hour in the Legislative Assembly, referred to similar amendment done in respect to some neighbouring states, without mentioning Telangana in Andhra Pradesh and Vidarbha in Maharashtra.

The Hyderabad-Karnataka region consists of Gulbarga, Bidar, Raichur, Koppal and Bellary districts.