28-05-2025
Karnataka minister to meet Rajnath seeking defence corridor
Karnataka minister MB Patil on Tuesday said he would meet defence minister Rajnath Singh to urge the centre to allocate an aerospace and defence corridor to the state on the basis of merit, a day after raising concerns about Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu's reported attempts to relocate major defence production projects of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) from Karnataka to Andhra Pradesh.
'Our state's contribution to the nation in the aerospace and defence sector is 65%. Therefore, the Aerospace and Defense Corridor should be given to our state on the basis of merit. I will soon meet the Honourable Defense Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh, and once again urge him to give the Defense Corridor to Karnataka,' he said in a post on social media platform X.
'The Central Government sanctioned a defence corridor for Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu 2 years ago, and we have no objection to this,' the post added.
Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar on Tuesday said that the state government would not allow the shifting of HAL production units out of Bengaluru in response to Naidu's proposal to relocate HAL's advanced production facilities to his state.
'I don't want to comment on whatever they demand. I want Parliament members and Central ministers to react to this, but as the government, we will not allow anything to be shifted. We will give land if they want to expand,' Shivakumar told reporters here.
'They can get any new thing if they want, we will not come in their way, but as far as Karnataka is concerned, HAL is our pride, Nehruji gave this to us,' he added.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday approved the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) Programme Execution Model, a key step to boost India's indigenous defence capabilities and strengthen the domestic aerospace industry, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in an official statement.