Chettalli: The villagers led by local leaders observed a day long hunger strike demanding separate Cauvery taluk with Kushalnagar as centre here on January 3.

Zilla Panchayat member Sunita Manjunath led the hunger strike and urged the state government to fulfill the long pending demand at the earliest.

District Congress party spokesman Puttarira Pappu Thimmaiah, Chettalli Gram Panchayat (GP) President Vatsala, Sunny Aiyappa linked to the Cauvery Taluk Formation Central Committee, former GP president Thirtha Kumar, Advocate Naveen Biddappa, local Youth Congress President Vinu, DYFI members, traders and several other leaders irrespective of party affiliations joined in the hunger strike.

People in the region have been demanding carving out separate “Cauvery taluk” in Kodagu district using 19 gram panchayats of Suntikoppa and Kushalnagar hoblis. Following the demand, Kushalanagar and other towns, villages observed bandhs on several occasions in the recent past.

Fifty new taluks were announced in the state budget last year with Rs 250 Crore allocated for the purpose but people in the region are upset because the name of Cauvery taluk does not figure in the list. They are aggrieved over the omission of Cauvery taluk despite the region fulfilling desired criteria for new taluk formation.

“The required infrastructure is ready in about 45 taluks. We are awaiting development works to get completed in the rest of them”, Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa had said few days ago. People in and around Kushalnagar are aggrieved over the omission of Cauvery taluk, despite the region fulfilling the desired criteria for new taluk formation.

“There have been demands to include some new areas in the list of taluks but these requests are yet to be scrutinised’,’ he had stated giving a glimmer of hope to people demanding Cauvery taluk.