North Karnataka eyes big-ticket push in state budget

Hubballi: Residents of North Karnataka (NK), including those in Hubballi-Dharwad, have pinned their hopes on the state budget, to be presented by chief minister Siddaramaiah Friday. The CM is expected to announce new schemes and allocate adequate funds for the development of NK.KCCI, which submitted its proposals to the CM recently, demanded improved infrastructure in industrial areas, speeding up the task of establishing a defence park, and ensuring greater investor engagement in Hubballi-Dharwad, Belagavi, and other NK districts. G K Adappagoudar, the president, and Uday Revankar, the honorary secretary, KCCI, said land acquisition for implementing long-pending railway projects, including the Dharwad-Belagavi (via Kittur), Gadag-Yalavigi, and Davanagere-Tumkur railway links, should be expedited. They also demanded a survey to start a 134-km line from Annigeri to Yallammangudda, and solve the Hubballi-Ankola railway issues on priority. They demanded the announcement of a Rs 500 crore special package for the development of Hubballi APMC in Amargol to create basic infrastructure, provide WiFi connectivity in all APMCs to facilitate e-tendering, provide property tax exemption to traders, establish a chain of cold storage facilities for traders in APMCs. Apart from these, new schemes for technological colleges, well-equipped hospitals and medical hubs in rural areas, a special package for industries in North Karnataka to develop industrial parks, food processing clusters, and logistics hubs were also part of the charter of demands. They said the Beyond Bengaluru concept should be carried forward to develop cities other than Bengaluru in Karnataka. They also said the state govt should create opportunities to develop IT companies and big industries in Hubballi-Dharwad, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Gadag, Ballari, Kalaburagi, and Bagalkot. They said industrial sites of 10 gunta in size should be created to allocate them to budding entrepreneurs to start new projects at an affordable cost, and sought property tax exemption up to 50% for industrialists in Hubballi-Dharwad.