The Hindu : Karnataka News : Vajpayee for correcting imbalances in development

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 14, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Vajpayee for correcting imbalances in development

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM, APRIL 13. The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said here on Tuesday that the country was facing regional imbalances in development and that the progress made by it after Independence was not adequate. But his Government had not discriminated among the States, he added.

Addressing a meeting organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here on Tuesday, Mr. Vajpayee said imbalances in development led to discontent and several other problems, and hence it needed to be corrected with equal emphasis on all areas of development. North Karnataka should progress on par with other developed regions expeditiously. Political differences should not come in the way of development, he added.

Observing that shortage of drinking water had not been solved in the country despite the presence of abundant natural resources such as rivers, he said consumption of water was not at the optimum level and the country had not been able to save it properly. Hence his Government was trying to link rivers. It was also linking major roads to boost the economic progress of the country.

Without naming any State, he advised that all water disputes should be solved amicably (by the riparian States) and approaching the court to resolve them should only be the last resort.

Giving a call to the youth of the country to take up agriculture to boost food production, Mr. Vajpayee asked them not to look up to the Government for jobs but become self-reliant. The youth should participate in production, he added.

Stressing the need for another Green Revolution, he said India was exporting foodgrains now. He said the Congress could not be relied upon, for it has been toppling governments at the Centre. It had withdrawn support for the Chandrashekhar and the H.D. Deve Gowda governments. "In Karnataka, all are our friends. If all are our friends, why not Deve Gowda,'' he asked without elaborating.

Mr. Vajpayee, who greeted the gathering in broken Kannada, called for a healthy relationship among linguistic communities even while working for the enrichment of all languages. All languages were good and he loved Kannada too, he added.

The senior Janata Dal (United) leader, S.R. Bommai, promised to implement the recommendations of the D.M. Nanjundappa Committee on Redressing of Regional Imbalances if the BJP-Janata Dal (U) alliance came to power in the State.

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