Development of mining-affected areas will be prioritised, says Jolle

Some leaders express discontentment over ‘discrimination’ in distribution of KKRDB funds

Minister for Muzrai, Haj & Wakf and in charge of Vijayanagara district Shashikala Jolle has said that development of mining-affected areas will be prioritised without neglecting the other taluks on the development front.

“About 37.84% of the people in Hosapete taluk are affected by mining, followed by 26.2% in Harapanahalli, 14.04% in Kottur and Hagari Bommanahalli, 12.29% in Kudligi, and 9.63% in Huvina Hadagali. We will give more importance to these areas in our development initiatives. Undivided Ballari district had ₹2,677 DMF [District Mineral Foundation] funds and action plans for spending ₹2,222 crore for the development of the mining-affected areas were prepared. Now, approval has been given to the action plans that would utilise about ₹631 crore in Vijayanagara district,” Ms. Jolle said at the DMF Governing Council meeting held at Deputy Commissioner’s office in Hosapete on Saturday.

As per the information that Ms. Jolle shared in the meeting, around ₹105 crore had already been transferred from Ballari DMF to Vijayanagara DMF and the latter has collected ₹21 crore additionally in the last six months.

“Of the available DMF funds, we have already released ₹29 crore for different development projects. Action plans were prepared for 1113 works and 568 projects have been completed. The remaining are at different stages of progress. The focus of planning the projects is on providing healthcare, drinking water, education, roads and other necessary facilities to rural masses,” Ms. Jolle said.

The works taken up with the Klyana Karnataka Region Development Board (KKRDB) were also discussed in the meeting. Deputy Commissioner Anirudh Sravan P. told the meeting that ₹136.28 crore was allocated to the district — ₹95.4 crore for micro projects and ₹40.88 crore for macro projects — for ₹2022-23. The action plans for micro projects submitted for each Assembly constituency were approved in the meeting.

“Under macro category, we will come up with Vijayeebhava programme which envisages offering coaching for competitive examination and providing essential material such as smart class equipment and books to schools,” Mr. Sravan said.

Some leaders present at the meeting, including Parliamentarian G.M. Siddeshwar and legislators P.T. Parameshwar Naik, G. Karunakar Reddy, N.Y. Gopalkrishna, Bhima Naik, S.V. Ramachandra, and Y.M. Satish, expressed discontentment over what they called “discrimination” in the distribution of KKRDB funds among the Assembly segments.