Modi raises regional issues in Raichur rally

Raichur: In an effort to appeal to the voters of Raichur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the Dasa and Sharana traditions of the region and simultaneously addressed the local issues of water crisis and power shortage in the Tungabhadra region, in a rally here on Sunday. He pointed out that the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal which irrigates close to 6 lakh acres in Raichur was now being left to die, and blamed the Congress Government for ignoring both the water crisis and the resulting agrarian crisis. He accused the Congress Government of promising to remove silt from the Tungabhadra reservoir, but failing to do so after it came to power.

Drawing the example of the BJP Government in Maharastra, Mr. Modi said that if the BJP came to power in Karnataka, it would take up a campaign of removing silt from tanks and reservoirs so that it would hold more water for irrigation. He promised that the farmers of Karnataka would not have to suffer from water scarcity.

He hailed Raichur as the “main current switch of Karnataka” , which is sadly kept in the dark, owing to the widespread power crisis. He blamed the State Government for this state of affairs and also accused it of dividing the people based on caste.

He called the Congress ‘Anti-Other Backward Classes’ for disrupting the Parliament proceedings and refusing to give constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes. “Backward Classes have been fighting for their constitutionally guaranteed rights for a long time now. The Congress did nothing to address their issues. Now, when we want to accord constitutional status to OBC Commission, it ensured that it would not happen by voting against it in the Rajya Sabha,” he said.

He said that the Congress had no other agenda but to viciously attack him because it was threatened by the developmental initiatives of his government. He accused the Congress of misappropriating funds while implementing welfare schemes like the Public Distribution System, while his government had stopped the leakage of almost Rs. 80,000 crore annually in the implementation of the welfare schemes.