Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda said on Wednesday that the State was now in second position in terms of development in the country.
He was speaking at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers' meeting here.
Mr. Gowda said that before the BJP government came to power, the State was in 14th position. Even in the implementation of the 20-point programme, the State was in second place. Rapid development in the State under the BJP in the last four years was giving sleepless nights to the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular).
The Congress and the JD(S) should ask themselves why they had not been able to achieve the kind of development in the past 55 years, which the BJP managed to do in just four years. The BJP had not come to power just for the loaves and fishes of the office. Its agenda was good governance and welfare of the people. The State government had given importance to development of ports in coastal districts. It had given Rs. 37 crore for the development of Malpe port. It had also decided to upgrade fisheries harbours in Hejmady and Koderi, he said.
It was because of the efforts of BJP MPs, the Union government had introduced Bangalore-Karwar train. Work on Kadur-Chikmagalur railway line started owing to pressure by BJP MPs. The BJP had also protected the interests of coffee and arecanut growers in Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha constituency. The government had passed a law to put an end to land grabbing in the State a couple of months ago. The large crowd attending the BJP meeting would send shivers down the spine of leaders of the Congress and JD(S), Mr. Gowda said.
General secretary of the BJP H.N. Ananth Kumar said though the State was represented by heavy-weight Congress leaders such as S.M. Krishna, Mallikarjuna Kharge, Oscar Fernandes and M. Veerappa Moily at the Centre, they had done little for the development of Karnataka. A railway corridor should be built from Kundapur to Kasaragod to facilitate development of this region, he said. President of the State unit of the BJP K.S. Eshwarappa said that the Centre was reducing reservation for Other Backward Classes. There were some political problems in the State because the BJP had not got a majority of its own in the 2008 Assembly elections. But these political problems had not affected development activities, he said. Party candidate for the Udupi-Chikmagalur seat V. Sunil Kumar, leaders Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri, Yogish Bhat, Nalin Kumar Kateel, Kota Srinivas Poojary, B.Y. Raghavendra, Ganesh Karnik, and D.N. Jeevaraj were among those present.
