Draft Cong manifesto to be ready by Jan 15: Moily

Former union minister and Chikkaballapur MP M Veerappa Moily said that the draft manifesto of the Congress for the forthcoming Assembly election will be submitted to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president G Parameshwara by January 15.

Moily told reporters on Sunday, "As KPCC Election Manifesto Committee chairperson, I will meet party leaders, stakeholders and various organisations in the state. By January 15, the draft manifesto will be submitted."

He added, "To know the local requirements while preparing the manifesto, six divisions have been created. The meetings at Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Chikkamagaluru, Uttara Kannada, and Hassan districts were held on Sunday. The meeting in Hubballi will be held on December 9, Bengaluru on December 11, Mysuru on December 23, Davangere on December 30 and Kalaburagi on January 7."

The former minister said that the Congress will prepare its manifesto. "At the same time, the state government is preparing 'Nava Karnataka Vision 2025'. The suggestion elicited for the vision will also be included in the party manifesto. In the interest of the integrated development of the state, all the stakeholders will be consulted before preparing the manifesto," said Moily.

He said that the Congress had given 170 promises in the manifesto during the last Assembly election. "Of these, 159 promises have been implemented. About 30% of the welfare schemes that were not part of the manifesto have been implemented. Further, 90% of the people in the state have been benefited from the government in one or the other way. The details of the beneficiaries are being collected and all the details will be uploaded in the website," Moily stated.

Slamming the Modi-led Union Government, Moily said that the government has failed in its foreign policy. "Though PM has been frequently visiting foreign countries, he has failed to check cross-border terrorism. The BJP-led state governments are far behind Congress-led state governments in terms of development," he commented.

Lauding the Siddaramaiah-led state government, he said, "In terms of development, the BJP cannot defeat the Congress. The Congress-led government has set a record in development programmes. In UPA's tenure, several projects were initiated in Mangaluru. In contrast, the BJP-led Union government has done nothing for the district. Many projects started by the UPA have been stalled halfway."