KARNATAKA - of Planning Commission

Karnataka: An OverviewA High Power Committeefor the Redressal ofRegional Imbalancesto address the issue ofregional imbalanceswas constituted by theGovernment in 2000. Itidentified 35 indicatorsencompassing agriculture,industry, social andeconomic infrastructureand populationcharacteristics to measureand prepare an index ofdevelopment.6meant that there were sharp imbalances betweenthe regions at the very inception of the state. Thus,running consistently through the analysis in theKarnataka Human Development Report 2005,is the thread of regional disparity and the wayit shapes, and is shaped by, economic growthand human development. The regions are briefl ydescribed below:Hyderabad Karnataka: or northeast Karnataka,initially comprised the three districts of Bidar,Gulbarga and Raichur, which formed part of theprincely state of Hyderabad. The Gazetteer of Indiagives a vivid account of the famines and scarcityconditions that prevailed in this region from the 17thcentury. Drought and great famines devastated vastareas in this region on a continual basis. Large-scaledeaths by starvation occurred frequently. In recenttimes, the most severe occurrence of drought was in1970-71. Scarcity conditions prevailed in the1980s and again affected the region from2002-03 onwards when the entire stateexperienced severe drought. To compound thesuffering infl icted by nature, the princely state ofHyderabad, unlike the princely state of Mysore,was interested neither in developing the regioneconomically, nor in investing in human capital.Today, the term, ‘Hyderabad Karnataka’ is used todescribe the three districts mentioned above, alongwith the district of Bellary (which was part of theformer Madras state, and had a different politicaland administrative legacy but which is contiguouswith the northeastern districts), and the new districtof Koppal, which has been carved out of Raichur.Bombay Karnataka: or northwest Karnataka,comprising four districts from the erstwhileBombay state, viz. Bijapur, Belgaum, Dharwadand Uttara Kannada, has better socio-economicindicators than the Hyderabad Karnataka region,although Bijapur, which is in the arid zone, wasless economically developed than the otherdistricts. Today, this region comprises, in additionto the districts mentioned above, the districts ofBagalkot, Gadag and Haveri.South Karnataka: is a large region with asmany as 15 districts and is not a homogeneousentity, for, here too, one fi nds variations inlevels of development between districts. Thelargest segment of this region falls within theclassifi cation ‘Old Mysore’, which is how theformer princely state is described, to this day.Southern Karnataka can be broadly sub-classifi edinto (i) coastal (Dakshina Kannada and Udupi),(ii) malnad (Kodagu, Chikmaglur, Shimoga andHassan) and (iii) maidan (Mysore, Mandya, Kolar,Tumkur, Chamarajnagar, Davangere, Chitradurga,Bangalore Rural and Bangalore Urban districts).The unirrigated maidan areas of the south havenot fared as well as the coastal and malnadregion, with the exception of Bangalore Urbanand Bangalore Rural districts which are, in manyways, atypical because of their proximity to themetropolis.A High Power Committee for the Redressal ofRegional Imbalances (HPCFRRI) to address theissue of regional imbalances was constituted bythe Government in 2000. The HPCFRRI identifi ed35 indicators encompassing agriculture, industry,social and economic infrastructure and populationcharacteristics to measure and prepare an indexof development. The Committee went beyond thedistrict as an administrative unit, to focus on intradistrictdisparities. Taluks with index values in therange 0.89 to 0.99 were classifi ed as ‘backward’,taluks with index values in the range 0.80 to 0.88were classifi ed as ‘more backward’ and talukswith index values between 0.53 to 0.79 as ‘mostbackward’.Referring to the incidence of drought in the state,the HPCFRRI points out that out of 175 taluks,70 taluks (30 in north Karnataka and 40 in southKarnataka) or 40 per cent, experienced droughtfor a period of less than 5 years; 77 taluks(40 in north Karnataka and 37 in south Karnataka)or 44 per cent, for a period between 6 and 10years; 27 taluks (11 in north Karnataka and 16in south Karnataka) or 15 per cent, experienceddrought for 11 to 15 years and one taluk (innorth Karnataka) or 0.6 per cent, had droughtconditions for a maximum of 16 years. In fact, ithas been observed that the south is more proneto severe droughts than the north, contrary topopular impression. But this is no consolation tothe north, as extreme or severe drought of longer