Siddu woos Lambanis, inaugurates Banjara Bhavan

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday sought to woo the Lambani community by enlisting the services the Congress delivered to the nomadic group.

“It was our government which provided assistance to Sevalal Mutt. Our government celebrated Sevalal Jayanti. It was our government that converted tandas (small settlements of a few hundred people) into revenue villages. We’ll ensure that 5,000 more tandas will be converted into revenue villages,” Siddaramaiah said, alleging that the BJP was taking credit for Congress’ work.

He was referring to Sant Sevalal Maharaj, the religious leader of the Banjara community. The Lambanis are a nomadic group that fall under the Scheduled Caste (SC) category in Karnataka.

He made the remarks after inaugurating the Banjara Bhawan built as part of the association's Golden Jubilee celebrations, organized by Karnataka Pradesh Banjara (Lambani) Seva Sangh in collaboration with Karnataka Tanda Development Corporation (KTDC).

The CM added that 275 crore was allocated in the Budget for the development of Banjara community.

“Other demands including Sevalal residential school will get funding in a phased manner in the coming days,” he said.

On the occasion, Siddaramaiah laid emphasis on education as a means of breaking the chains of poverty.

“Education makes us independent and frees us from exploitation,” he said.

“For thousands of years, we were all deprived of literacy. After the arrival of the British, educational opportunities opened up. Because of Dr BR Ambedkar, education became a basic right for all deprived people. This is why we all need to be educated. Education makes us self-respecting. If you have self-respect, you can escape exploitation,” he added.

Outreach through buildings

It is not the first time this State gover nment has reached out to a community by way of inauguration of a Bhavan. Over the weekend, Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar inaugurated the Beary Bhavan.

Bearys speak a language of the same name and are a Muslim community based in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts. DK Shivakumar inaugurated the programme.

Deputy Speaker of Legislative Assembly Rudrappa Manappa Lamani unveiled the statue of Sevalal. Banjara Handicraft Exhibition was inaugurated by Social Welfare Minister HC Mahadevappa on the occasion.

MLC Prakash Rathod, MLAs Nemiraja Naik, Avinash Jadhav, Banjara Seva Sangh's General Secretary HB Siddya Naik, Ex-MLA BT Lalitha Nayak, CM'sPolitical Secretary Govidaraju and others were present.