)
The Janata Dal (Secular) manifesto today 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 the Congress and the BJP had become ‘mute spectators” and had 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 H D Deve Gowda at a press conference here, said.
To set right ‘injustice’ in sharing the Cauvery water, the JDS would put pressure on the Centre to declare a national policy on sharing inter-state river water and was 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 instead of considering rural and urban sector as separate units, it was necessary to consider them as complementary to each other.
The goal of total development could be achieved by linking rural development to urban development programmes and it was necessary for state and central governments to join hands in executing this kind of schemes, the manifesto said.
It also said the country was 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 were gaining importance and national parties were losing their hold on political happenings.
The manifesto also said the party believed corruption flows from higher to lower level and it felts necessary to take steps to remove graft at higher levels in government.
Gowda said both the BJP and the Congress were 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.
