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Hitting out at both the national parties Congress and BJP, Former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has said that both the parties were immersed in power politics and least bothered about development of the State and welfare of the people.
He was speaking to press persons at Almatti in Vijayapura district after offering ‘bagina’ (offering) to river Krishna and launching the party’s ‘Janata Jaladhare’ programme seeking implementation of comprehensive irrigation projects in the State. He said both the parties had utterly failed to ensuring utilisation of the available water resources in Karnataka.
“While Congress is the king of corruption, BJP is after power. Now BJP in the name of State executive meeting is engrossed in how to win elections and bring back the party to power,“ he said.
Referring to the ‘Congress March towards Krishna’ held before coming to power in Karnataka in 2013, he said after coming to power, the irrigation projects were not given due importance.
“In Andhra, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, there is development in every sector including irrigation and the main reason for that is rule of regional parties. Under Janata Dal (Secular) party’s ‘Janata Jaladhare’ programme, it has been planned to ensure optimum utilisation of water available in all the rivers of the state through comprehensive irrigation schemes. If JD(S) is given clear majority, the whole state will be irrigated,” he said.
Mr. Kumaraswamy blamed the national parties for the failure to ensure utilisation of the water available in Krishna and other rivers of the State.
He said that less allocations had been made in the State budget for UKP and Upper Bhadra Project of central Karnataka. “When it comes to inter-State river disputes, both Congress and BJP have treated Karnataka lightly. In 1996 JD(S) had elected 16 MPs to Lok Sabha and then Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda gave priority to irrigation projects and gave ₹17,000 crore. Even after being in power for 32 years, Congress had not utilised 10% of the available water. The contribution of Mr. Deve Gowda to irrigation projects of Karnataka is immense,” he said.
Karnataka had always been meted out injustice by Congress and BJP. Despite being in second position in terms of collecting tax revenue, Karnataka had always been given a raw deal in allocations, he said. Nagathana MLA Devanand Chavan and other leaders were present during the launch of ‘Janata Jaladhare’.
