Communal harmony in coastal Karnataka top on Congress manifesto

Mangaluru: Congress Party Manifesto Committee chairman and former Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara announced that communal harmony in the Coastal Karnataka region would be given top priority in the party manifesto for the forthcoming assembly election.

Parameshwara along with committee members was in Mangaluru to discuss with various organizations, students and the business community.

“One of the major problems affecting the people in Coastal Karnataka is communal tension. Communal harmony has vanished away from the region. The situation was not so when Congress was in power in the state for five years from 2013. Earlier when BJP was in power, Congress had held ‘Congress Nadige Samarasyada Kade,’ Padayatra from Ullal to Udupi stressing on harmony. After that, we were in power for five years when there was no problem. However the problem has increased in the last three and half years of the BJP government,” Parameshwara told reporters.

“During my interaction with the students I was told that students go to Bengaluru from here. Also, the commerce and industry organizations told me that there were no major investments or infrastructure development. There is also no employment creation and youth of the region have to go out for a job. One of the major factors for all these is lack of communal harmony. In the last three years BJP has spoiled the situation,” Parameshwara who had also served as the Home Minister in the Congress government said.

“We assure you that if Congress is voted to power, we will solve this problem. Our manifesto will give top priority to communal harmony,” he said.

The Congress is likely to make a major announcement regarding this during the Praja Dhwani Yatra on Sunday.

Parameshwara said that the manifesto was always given importance after Congress came to power.

While the party will have a manifesto for the entire state, there would be separate sections for Coastal Karnataka, Kittur Karnataka, and Kalyana Karnataka.

“We assure only doable things and we do not promise non doable things,” he added.

“Assurances like providing Rs 2,000 for women and 200 units of free electricity for all houses in Karnataka were made after proper study. When we were in power earlier, assurances made in the manifesto were considered while preparing the budget,” he declared.