JD(S) manifesto vows to safeguard Karnataka interests

Bangalore: The Janata Dal (Secular) manifesto on Friday promised new inter-state river water and rural India policies and vowed to protect Karnataka`s interests which the national parties had "totally failed" to safeguard.

The manifesto said elected representatives of Congress and BJP have become "mute spectators" and not taken any action in getting due share of water and other resources from the Centre. "Both Congress and BJP failed to protect the interest of the state because they concentrated on strengthening their political existence," the manifesto, released by JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda at a press conference here, said. In order to set right `injustice` in sharing the Cauvery water, JDS would pressurise the Centre to declare a national policy on sharing inter-state river water and is ready to fight for it, if necessary, Gowda said. Following a separate policy for each river has proved detrimental to Karnataka and it did not get its due share in distribution of both Cauvery and Krishna rivers, he said. Under the new policy for rural India, the manifesto said that instead of considering rural and urban sector as separate units, it is necessary to consider them as complementary to each other. The goal of total development can be achieved by linking rural development to urban development programmes and it is necessary for state and central governments to join hands in executing this kind of schemes, the manifesto said. It also said the country is in a period of political and financial transition and in the coming years the role of national parties would be negligent in national politics. At this juncture, the manifesto said, regional parties are gaining importance and national parties are losing their hold on political happenings. The manifesto also said the party believes corruption flows from higher to lower level and it feels necessary to take steps to remove graft at higher levels in government. Gowda said both BJP and Congress are projecting a particular person as their Prime Ministerial candidate and canvassing on this, instead of being programme-based. The manifesto also focuses on employment for youth, women empowerment, health, industrial policy, commerce, election reform, protection of environment and others.