When Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that his government could not overrule the decision of the previous government, headed by Jagdish Shettar, on recommending Raichur as first preference to establish the proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), he seems to have overlooked an earlier decision by the B.S. Yeddyurappa government.
Mr. Yeddyurappa, as Chief Minister on March 9, 2010, had written to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to establish the IIT at Belgaum (now Belagavi).
But, Mr. Siddaramaiah said at a public function in Hubballi on Saturday that his government would recommend Raichur, Hubballi-Dharwad and Mysuru for the IIT.
He also reminded that a Cabinet meeting held at Gulbarga, during Mr. Shettar’s tenure as Chief Minister, had decided to recommend Raichur.
“We can’t overrule the previous government’s decision,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said. The developments also indicate that the Shettar government overruled the recommendation of its own BJP party government, headed by Mr. Yeddyurappa, and favoured Raichur.
But, the question that haunts the people of Belagavi now is whether the Siddaramaiah government should overrule the earlier recommendation of the government, headed by Mr. Yeddyurappa, even if the decision was not taken in a Cabinet meeting. That Mr. Yeddyurappa is now in favour of his home district Shivamogga is a different story.
Political leaders here are yet to make a united stand to influence the State government to at least include Belagavi in the list of proposed cities to establish the IIT and lobby the centre in its favour; although some of them, such as Small Scale Industries Minister and district incharge Satish L. Jarkiholi and MP Suresh C. Angadi have spoken for Belagavi at different platforms
Yeddyurappa had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recommending Belgaum
Political leaders are yet to make united stand to put forward Belagavi’s name
