<span style="color: #222222;">Union Home Minister Amit Shah has launched or initiated several development projects in Bidar and Raichur in North Karnataka today. In Raichur, the Home Minister initiated and laid the foundation stone for projects worth over Rs 4223 crore. Most of these projects are related to drinking water and irrigation canals. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Speaking on the occasion, Mr Shah said, the double engine government at the Centre and State has benefitted Karnataka. The state Government has sanctioned Rs 5000 crore for the development of the backward regions. The poor families have received a five kgs free ration. Raichur will soon be connected by air with the new airport coming up here. The Indian economy is doing well by growing from the 11th to the fifth biggest economy in the world. India is now second globally in terms of mobile phone manufacturing, national security is given the highest priority.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Home Minister called upon the party cadre to ensure a government with an absolute majority in the forthcoming assembly election in the state. In Bidar earlier the Home Minister unveiled a 20 feet tall idol of iron man Sardar Vallabhai Patel and inaugurated a 130 feet tall flag pole with the tricolour fluttering on it. He also inaugurated the Gorata martyr memorial in Gorata village developed on a four acres area. The memorial is developed in memory of hundreds of people killed by the Hyderabad Nizam army in 1948 for hoisting the national flag. </span><br />