Karnataka gets 31st district; govt issues notification carving Vijayanagara out of Ballari

Karnataka got its 31stdistrict with the state government on Monday issuing anofficial gazette notification carving out a new Vijayanagaradistrict from the mine-rich Ballari.

The new district will have six taluks and Hosapetewill be its headquarters.

Kudligi, Hagaribommana halli, Kotturu, HoovinaHadagali, and Harapanahalli are the other five taluks.

Ballari district will have five taluks- Ballari,Kurugodu, Siraguppa, Kampli, and Sanduru.

Ballari taluk will remain its headquarters.

On November 18 last year, the state cabinet had givenin principle approval for creation of Vijayanagara district.

The government's plan to create Vijayanagaradistrict had run into opposition, especially from within theruling BJP, including MLA Somashekar Reddy.

Minister for Infrastructure Development, Haj andWakf, Anand Singh, who is also the and Ballari districtin-charge, had anchored the efforts for the new district.

The plan for a new Vijayanagar district was firstofficially mooted by Chief Minister Yediyurappa in September2019, when Singh was a disqualified legislator.

As consensus eluded meetings held in this regard inOctober that year, the CM had deferred a decision on it.

Many within the ruling BJP had criticised the movein 2019, stating the decision to create a new district wasbeing taken under pressure from Singh, in return for his rolein BJP coming to power.

Singh, one of the 17 disqualified MLAs whoserebellion led to the fall of the previous H D Kumaraswamy -edCongress-JD(S) coalition government, had cited the demand fora separate Vijayanagara district as one of the reasons for hisresignation from the Congress.

He subsequently joined the BJP and won fromVijayanagara seat on the party ticket.

The timing of the notification has also come at atime when Singh is said to be sulking, unhappy with portfoliosallocated to him during the rejig of portfolios last month,party sources said.

Singh, who was Forest, Ecology and EnvironmentMinister, was first moved to Tourism and was divested ofForest, leaving him with Ecology and Environment.

This was again changed and he got InfrastructureDevelopment, Haj and Wakf.

Undivided Ballari was politically significant,comprising nine Assembly constituencies of which the Congressrepresents five and the BJP four.

In a note written to the Chief Secretary inSeptember 2019, Yediyurappa had said keeping public andadministrative interest in mind, it was necessary to createthe new district noting that some parts of the Ballaridistrict were about 200 km from the present headquarters.