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Kumaraswamy connects with rural Karnataka, begins village stay

Kicking off the programme, the Chief Minister said he wanted to start two to four programmes on village stay tour every month.

Yadgir: Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Friday revived his 2006 rural outreach programme, in which he stayed at the homes of villagers.

Kicking off the programme, the Chief Minister said he wanted to start two to four programmes on 'Grama Vaastavya' or the village stay tour every month.

"It (village stay tour) will start from today onwards. I wanted to do a minimum two to four 'Grama Vaastavya' (village stay programme) every month," he told ANI here.

In an interaction with reporters in Bengaluru, Kumaraswamy said, "My village visit is one popular programme in this state. When I was the chief minister in 2006, there was a demand from all over the state to visit those villages. This time, whatever lapses are there during village stay in previous years, we are going to correct it. This programme is going to help in the surrounding area, not only that village. This is a new kind of village stay. I am going to meet all the people who want to share their problems with me from morning 10 am to evening 6 pm. I will get information from the common man and give direction to our officers.”

Under the village stay programme, Kumaraswamy will stay in a hamlet overnight where he will interact with its people on the issues they face regularly.

On Thursday evening, Kumaraswamy had boarded a train from Bengaluru to Kalaburagi for his rural outreach initiative.

Meanwhile, the JD(S) today in a tweet hit out at criticism of its leader's initiative by the BJP.

"CM's #GramaVastavya has helped a lot of villages. Unlike @BSYBJP, @hd_kumaraswamy prefers to eat homemade food and not parcelled food from hotel & CM is travelling in a train! Btw, Charity begins at home. How many countries did @narendramodi visit in the last 5 yrs?" JD(S) said in a tweet.

It was responding to BJP Karnataka's tweet, which said: "The amount of money spent on HD Kumaraswamy’s village trip that includes his luxury food, stay, travel, cultural programs and advertisements could have been spent for the development of that village. Huge amount of Tax payers money is spent on image make over of Kumaraswamy."

Lashing out at the Karnataka CM, a BJP leader called it an act of running away from the political pressures in Benguluru to enjoy some peace.

The JD(S) leader had during his first stint as Chief Minister of the state in 2006 had stayed in the homes of villagers.

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