Bengaluru: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy revealed in his Independence Day Speech in the city on Wednesday that he had written to the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister against shifting the Aero India show from Bengaluru and had brought the issue to the notice of Members of Parliament from Karnataka.
"I hope the Union government will respect people's sentiments and respond positively to them," he added.
Mr Kumaraswamy, who unfurled the tricolour at the Field Marshal Manekshaw Parade ground to mark India's 72nd Independence Day, announced that Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversay would be celebrated in a meaningful way, and also the 125th anniversary of Swamy Vivekananda's speech in Chicago, USA.
The Chief Minister revealed his government intended to set up clusters of industries in every district to create one lakh jobs in each of them and set up a Unified Land Transport Authority under his chairmanship to promote mass transport in a big way and fight pollution in the state. He also announced that a Unique Science Centre would be established in memory of Dr H Narasimhaiah at Hosur village near Gouribidanur to promote the basic sciences.Mr Kumaraswamy said his recent participation in sowing of paddy with farmers in the fields would not be a one- off event, and he intended to continue to take part in such activity through the ‘Raitha Spandana' programme every month.
Dismissing demands for a separate North Karnataka among a section of the people, Mr Kumaraswamy said such "feeble voices" were time and again silenced by the Kannadigas' spirit of unity. "The government is committed to development of Karnataka as a whole. The budget presented by the previous government and the present coalition government is testimony to that," he maintained.
While he made no mention of the Mahadayi tribunal's verdict, he spoke of the government's move to waive farm loans and how it would help the farmers.
