New Delhi: Demanding "full-fledged autonomy"
for their region, a delegation of Codava National Council from
south-west Karnataka on Tuesday met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi
and submitted a memorandum.
The delegation headed by Council president NU Nachappa
Codava pressed Gandhi for introduction of a bill on Codava
Land Autonomous Region in south-west Karnataka in the upcoming
Winter Session of Parliament.
Steps should be initiated to set up Codava Land Autonomous
Region in South West Karnataka on par with the Bodoland
Territorial Council in Assam and Darjeeling Gorkhaland
Territorial Administration, the delegation said.
"Please take pains to consider the question of the
establishment of Codava Land Autonomous Region the way it has
been done in relation to Gorkhaland Territorial Administration
and please implement in the same breath along with Gorkha
Land," they said in the memorandum submitted after staging a
demonstration at Jantar Mantar.
The Codava National Council also demanded ethnolinguistic
tribal minority status for Codavas.
"Owing to marginalisation due to its isolation and
minimal population, the hill community people have become
restive, but have been agitating in a peaceful manner despite
the specific exemption of this race to possess fire arms,"
Nachappa Codava said.
PTI
