The Hindu : Karnataka News : KRRS, DSS to launch alternative political outfit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

KRRS, DSS to launch alternative political outfit

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, SEPT. 14. Tired of waiting for major political parties to take up programmes for the eradication of untouchability, economic empowerment of the Dalits and according top priority to agriculture in terms of social responsibility, the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) and the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (DSS) have decided to make common cause and launch an "alternative political organisation."

Announcing this at a press conference here today, the KRRS president, K.S. Puttannaiah, and the DSS State convener, Indudhara Honnapura, said the aim of the initiative was to "establish a prosperous Karnataka, where there will be no hunger, untouchability or huts."

To retain identities

To that end, the two organisations would retain their separate identities and interests only to come together for maximising political advantage and to counter the agenda of major political parties, which only regarded those communities as vote banks, Mr Puttannaiah said. The agricultural sector was given attention for its productivity alone and no political party saw it as more than a production sector. "Food production and growing food is a culture ingrained in rural societies and we want social equity to touch these sectors."

The farm sector accounted for 66 per cent of the jobs generated in the country, yet its economic development was at least 20 years behind other sectors he said. "Consider the Ashraya housing scheme. Even now, a beneficiary gets just Rs. 20,000 to build a house of four squares, as he did 15 years ago. Is it possible to stay within that limit in these days of rising costs and inflation?" Mr. Puttannaiah asked. All schemes meant for the uplift of those communities were debt traps that kept progress and economic empowerment out of their reach, he said.

Mr. Honnapura said that the decision to form a political forum had been made at a convention of the KRRS and the DSS in August. Conventions were planned all over the State to create awareness about the new forum. In November, a State-level convention was planned in Davangere. At a meeting in Mysore on September 26, H.D. Tulsidas Dasappa, former Congress MP (son of well known freedom fighters H.C. Dasappa and Yashodhara Dasappa), and litterateur Devanur Mahadeva and others would launch the political convention.

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