BSY leads Karnataka all party delegation

New Delhi, Jul 2 (UNI) An all party delegation led by Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today began its meetings with Central Ministers on various pending state issues even as Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) refused to be part of the delegation. The delegation today met Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy urging him to release over Rs 10,000 crore for various pending projects in Bangalore and to include twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad under Jawaharlal National Urban Renewal Mission.

The delegation participated by Janata Dal (United), Communist Party of India and rebel JD (S) is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to release adequate fertiliser stocks to enable farmers to undertake agricultural operations taking advantage of early rains later in the day. The delegation will also meet Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil.

The Karnataka Ministers accompanying the delgation include Home Minister V S Acharya, Public Works Minister C M Udasi, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar, Revenue Minister Karunakara Reddy and Cooperation Minister, M P Nadagouda, MLC and CPI Secretary Siddana Gouda Patil and former Karnataka minister Vyjanath Patil are part of the delegation.

A team of elderly Kannada scholars including former Vice Chancellors D Javare Gowda and Dr Chandrashekhara Kambara senior reserach scholars Dr M Chidananda Murthy and S S Marulaiah have arrived to take part in the delegation to urge Prime Minister and Culture Minister Ambika Soni to declare Kannada a classical language.

The Congress and JD (S) have announced that they will not be part of the delegation because they believe that the demand was intended to draw political mileage and to shield its inefficient distribution of available fertilisers. They also claim that about 50 per cent of the fertiliser stocks were lying in the godowns. The two parties have decided to come in their own delegation on July six.

They have declared their support for the demand for amending Article 371 of the Constitution providing constitutional status to the backward Hyderabad Karnataka Region to remove regional imbalance and classical language status for Kannada.

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