K'taka to give special grants to Kannada schools in Maharashtra: CM Bommai
'pension to those who fought for State's unification'
Bengaluru, Nov 22: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday said the government has decided to give special grants to Kannada medium schools in Maharashtra and also pension to Kannadigas in the neighbouring State who fought for the unification of the State.
His statement comes a day after Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra appointed two ministers to coordinate with the legal team regarding the court case on the decades-old border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Shinde also announced that the pension scheme for freedom fighters will cover those parts in Belagavi in Karnataka to which the western state Maharashtra stakes claim to.
He added his government was positive about extending benefits of the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MJPJAY) to people living in those areas.
The MJPJAY is a flagship health insurance scheme of Government of Maharashtra. It provides cashless quality medical care to beneficiaries under the scheme for catastrophic illnesses requiring hospitalisation for surgeries and therapies under identified specialty services through network of health care providers.
Bommai said: "Today our government has decided to give special grants for the development of Kannada medium schools in Maharashtra through Border Development Authority."
"Also, our government has decided to give pension to those Kannadigas in Maharashtra who fought for the unification (of Karnataka), took part in the freedom struggle of India as well as Goa 'Vimochan' agitation after verifying all their documents. We will implement this," he said.
The Karnataka Chief Minister also said that protecting the interests of a large number of Kannadigas residing in Maharashtra is the duty of the State government.
Bommai also cautioned his Maharashtra counterpart Eknath Shinde against creating a row between the two states, which are in harmony.
"I want to tell the Maharashtra Chief Minister and the government not to create a row between states when there are harmonious relations, when we are treating everyone equally irrespective of their language," the Karnataka Chief Minister said.
He claimed that the Panchayats in Jath Taluka in Maharashtra had passed a resolution in the past to merge with Karnataka when there was a severe drought situation and acute drinking water crisis, and his government has evolved schemes to help them by providing water. The state government is seriously considering it.
Bommai on Monday said he has formed a formidable legal team of senior lawyers from Supreme Court and Karnataka to deal with the border row case when it comes up before the apex court.
"The border dispute is a political tool used by all parties in Maharashtra. But they will never succeed," he said, adding that Maharashtra's plea has not found maintainability in all these years and Karnataka is prepared to argue that it's not maintainable.
Bommai had also said that there is no example to show that what had been done under the States Reorganisation Act was reviewed.
Belagavi bordering Maharashtra has a significant population of Marathi-speaking people, and had for decades been a bone of contention between the two States.
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Water crisis hits Ballari’s jeans industry as over 100 units shut temporarily, hundreds left jobless
Ballari: A severe water shortage in Karnataka's Ballari is crippling the region’s jeans industry, leading to the temporary closure of over 100 jeans units and leaving hundreds of workers unemployed. The crisis, which has been ongoing for over a month, has reportedly left the industry in turmoil as many units that are still running are using tanker water, which is expensive.
Ballari, often referred to as the "Jeans Capital" of India, is home to 732 jeans production units, which rely heavily on water-intensive washing processes. The industry association has requested the administration to provide sufficient water to run the units, as reported by The New Indian Express on Tuesday.
All the 732 jeans factories in Ballari depend on fifteen washing units to finish their products. Although water shortages have been a recurring issue every summer for the past decade, no permanent solution has been found, the report added.
The situation has reached a critical point, with many units halting production due to the skyrocketing cost of water. Industry associations have appealed to the local administration for a more reliable water supply, but their repeated requests have largely been ignored by both officials and political leaders.
An owner of one of the units noted that summer started 15 days early this year which exacerbated the situation. “Instead of waiting and paying more money to wash jeans products, some owners have shut their units for four to five months. This has left a large number of people unemployed,” TNIE quoted the owner as saying.
Meanwhile, owners of the jeans washing units are pinning their hopes on the apparel park planned by the Karnataka state government, which is expected to provide a dedicated water pipeline from the Tungabhadra Dam to address the ongoing water shortage.
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