Karnataka government sets aside Rs 50 crore to form Maratha Development Authority

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has ordered formation of a new Maratha Development Authority for which Rs 50 crore will be set aside. The announcement comes ahead of the byelection to the Basavakalyan assembly constituency.

Bengaluru: Karnataka is setting up a Maratha Development Authority, with Rs 50 crore corpus for the welfare of the Marathas living in the state, especially in districts bordering Maharashtra.

According to an official statement, the authority has been formed for the development of the Maratha community residing in the state.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has directed the state welfare department to set up the Authority for the financial, social, educational and development of the Marathas living in the state over the decades, especially in the northwest and northern regions.

The announcement comes ahead of the byelection to the Basavakalyan assembly constituency, where Marathas are said to form a good number of voters.

Though the Election Commission is yet to announce the poll date, the byelection has been necessitated due to the death of its Congress legislator B Narayan Rao, who succumbed to COVID-19 at a private hospital in Bengaluru on September 24.

The state's northwest region was part of the Bombay Province and northern region of the erstwhile Hyderabad-Karnataka region before they were merged with the southern region in the Madras Presidency to form Mysore on November 1, 1956, for the reorganisation of the states across the country. Since then the Marathas have been living in Karnataka over the centuries.